How to identify Precisionist art (1915-1945)?
1. Precisionism a style of painting in which the object is depicted realistically with an emphasis on the geometrical form of the object in perfect precision, as the name of the style indicates, so it would appear like a photograph.
Upper Deck by Charles Sheeler, ca. 1928
Note the chimneys and the motors which are common elements in Precisionist art.
I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth, 1928
2. Like Italian Futurism, Precisionist artists celebrated industrialization in the form of urban landscapes (skyscrapers and massive machinery), however the Precisionists differed in not showing much abstraction, dynamism (e.g. automobiles or planes) or a bird’s-eye view of buildings. Instead, Precisionist paintings show the subjects from angles that aim to make them pass as photographs. Note how the scenes here are always “spiritually” serene as opposed to the dynamic Futurist paintings.
Skyscrapers by Charles Sheeler, 1922
The Radiator Building — Night, New York by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1927
As in other Precisionist paintings, any signs of humanity is absent or de-emphasized: here we find human life is represented by only small windows on the tall, dark city buildings.
3. Look for paintings showing smokestacks, steel foundries, massive machinery, factories, urban skylines and country landscapes with barns and grain elevators. Note that you will rarely see people or nature there! A pure glorification of industrialization.
American Landscape by Charles Sheeler, 1930
There is only one man in the painting, can you spot him?
4. Light in Precisionist paintings is perfectly bright, falling on and “dignifying” the subject matter as if to signal the dawn of a new Utopian era. It is an art style that is curiously trying to achieve both idealism and realism at the same time.
My Egypt by Charles Demuth, 1927
Note the steel and concrete grain elevators where the artists is comparing American success and prosperity to the grandeur of ancient Egypt. You can’t miss the monumentality of the majestic grain elevators as your eyes notice the lower rooftops of other buildings in contrast.
5. The industrial architecture is simplified and purified to geometric, particularly cylindrical forms that are hard-edged and sharply delineated.
Chimney and Water Tower by Charles Demuth, 1931
How Precisionist art got its name? and where?
After WWI, during the 1920s and 1930s, some American artists in the North Eastern cities, adopted a style that was distinguished by its clarity and precision. Initially it was called Cubist Realism because it was inspired by Cubism and the forms were realistic like photographs. However, one of its pioneers, Charles Sheeler, described himself as a Precisionist and that’s how the movement got its name. Precisionism was never an official movement and the artists did not have a manifesto.
What gave rise to Precisionist art?
1. America wanted its own art style
For centuries, Paris was the capital of Western art, but after WWI, New York City and North Eastern USA challenged that position. (Eventually, after the Second World War, NYC would emphatically be the center of art.) During the 1920s, there was a great craving for a genuinely American art style that does not imitate or follow European art styles such as Cubism, Futurism and Impressionism. That sense of an American identity was not only artistic, it was cultural and political with many voices demanding a policy isolationism from the global stage following the Great War. In that atmosphere, some American artists shared a certain style that was only inspired by European avant-garde including Synthetic Cubism, its reducing forms to simple and sharply defined geometric patterns.
2. Believe or not, many people believed technological progress will solve all problems
They were also inspired by Futurism in their glorification of machinery and modernity. Precisionist paintings differed from the Futurist ones by not focusing on dynamism and motion. Long before WWII and its nuclear bombs and gas chambers, there was a belief that technology might be a salvation for all that ails society. Although this art style emerged after the First World War which had its share of unprecedented destruction through new inventions like machine guns, tanks and poison gas, the optimism that followed its end had a streak of techno-utopianism. Precisionist artists were inspired by the Italian Futurist fascination with industrialization.
During that period, it was hard not to see the promise of technology in making life better. Innovation was entering all fields from transportation to communication. For the first time, millions of cars were being sold every year. American life was physically changing everywhere.
3. The American landscape and the rise of industrialization
The 1920s was a milestone decade where more Americans had moved from rural to urban areas. Precisionist art appeared to capture the changing American city. As more people move there, they worked industrial environments like factory complexes and automobile plants. Most of the Precisionist display chimneys, towers, factories, bridges, steel foundries, grain elevators and skyscrapers. Their paintings were always clean from any deterioration to the environment or even industrial debris as what you see around coal mines. Idealism was represented in elegant and clear outlines, bright colors, minimal details and smooth surfaces. It is important to note that their glorification of machines curiously replaced human activity, hence you won’t see any signs of life in their cityscapes. More people were working in “filthy” factories than ever, but you wouldn’t know that from their paintings. It is as if machines are of higher importance than humans. (In a sense, one could say it was also a harbinger of the future replacement of workers by robots.) In fact you won’t even see animals or plants. Nature versus machines, it was clear which of the two the Precisionist embraced and celebrated.
It’s no coincidence that one of the Precisionist pioneers, Charles Demuth, gave a painting the title, My Egypt. In glorifying the new industrial landscape, they likened it to the architecture of Egypt and Greece. The treated the industrial structures in their paintings with an aura of grandeur befit of the temples of antiquity.
4. The recent invention of photography as an inspiration
While many artists saw photography as a threat in visually representing life and society, the Precisionists found in it a source of inspiration in how to create photographically realistic paintings, with extreme “precision.”
Why Precisionist artists were rebels?
Precisionist art was reaction against European art and particularly their cynical art movements like Expressionism and Dada. Americans looked inwards with confidence at American industrial success and celebrated it in their art. The pessimist “social commentary” artworks by Europeans had no place in Precisionism. Additionally, European artworks were at times difficult to comprehend, but this Precisionist art was simply akin to holding a mirror what their audience see in their own burgeoning cities. Being American at its core is perhaps the reason, the art movement did not spread beyond the US borders.
The Precisionist rebellion was not only thematic in diverging from the typical subject matter found in imported European art, but also stylistic. They were inspired by photographs like the Impressionists but unlike them, the Precisionist brushstrokes are concealed and the canvas is smooth. They were inspired by the Futurists in their obsession with machines but they never represented them in motion. The geometric forms of Cubism were influential but the Precisionists differed in ensuring their subjects are easily recognizable.
With the onset of WWII, the deadly power of the atomic bomb and other destructive uses of technology, American celebration of industrialization had faded. The Precisionist confidence was undermined by the end of the 1940s. However, Precisionism did not dissipate before leaving a mark on future art movements like Photorealism, Abstract and Minimal art.
2. How Precisionist art got its name and what gave rise to it?
3. Why Precisionist artists were rebels?