ART

Precisionism was the first indigenous modern-art movement in the United States and an early American contribution to the rise of Modernism. The Precisionist style, which first emerged after World War I and was at the height of its popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, celebrated the new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism." The term "Precisionism" was first coined in the mid-1920s, possibly by Museum of Modern Art director Alfred H. Barr.Painters working in this style were also known as the "Immaculates," which was the more commonly used term at the time.The stiffness of both art-historical labels suggests the difficulties contemporary critics had in attempting to characterize these artists. 

 

Many American artists worked in a Precisionist style over a twenty-year period. George Ault, Ralston Crawford, Francis Criss, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Preston Dickinson, Elsie Driggs, Louis Lozowick, Gerald Murphy, Charles Sheeler, Niles Spencer, Morton Schamberg and Joseph Stella, were among the most prominent Precisionists. Examples of their work can be found in most major American museum collections. Virginia Berresford, Henry Billings, Peter Blume, Stefan Hirsch, Edmund Lewandowski, John Storrs, Miklos Suba, Herman Trunk, Arnold Wiltz, and the photographers Paul Strand and Lewis Hine were other artists associated with Precisionism. The movement had no major presence outside the United States, although it did influence Australian art where Jeffrey Smart adopted its principles. Although no manifesto was ever created, some of the artists were friends and frequently exhibited at the same galleries. Georgia O'Keeffe, especially with paintings like New York City with Moon (1926) and The Shelton With Sun Spots (1926), created her own more sensuous version of Precisionism, although her best-known works are not closely related to Precisionism, and it would be inaccurate to state that O'Keeffe (who vehemently resisted movement ties) was closely aligned with the Precisionist movement. Her husband, photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, was a highly regarded mentor for the group and was especially supportive of Paul Strand.

Precisionist art would have an indirect influence on the later styles known as magic realism, pop art, and photorealism, but it was largely considered a dated "period style" by the 1950s, though its influence on advertising imagery and stage and set design continued throughout the twentieth century. Its two most famous practitioners are Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler.