INTRODUCTION
• Precisionism (or Cubist Realism) is a style of representation in which an object is rendered in a realistic manner, but with an emphasis on its geometric form.
• Inspired by the development of Cubism in Europe, and by the rapid growth of industrialization of North
America in the wake of innovators such as Henry Ford.
• In its emphasis on stylized angular forms it is also visually somewhat similar to Art Deco.
• Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler are the artists most closely associated with Precisionism. The urban works of Georgia O'Keeffe are also highly typical of this style. City paintings of Edward Hopper and
Charles Sheeler
PRECISIONIST PAINTERS
Charles Demuth
• Charles Demuth
1883-1935
• Charles Sheeler
1883-1965
• Preston Dickinson
Georgia O’Keffie
Charles Sheeler
1891-1930
• Elsie Driggs
1898-1992
• Francis Criss
1901-1973
• Ralston Crawford
1906-1978
• Edmund Lewandowski 1914-1998
• This is a view of the Center Methodical
Episcopal Church, built in 1860.
• Designed in the English Baroque style, inspired by Christopher Wren.
• Repeated diagonal ‘lines of force’ break the sky into fragments, and the rest of the city seems crystallized from multiple planes. • Charles Demuth demonstrated with this painting, that he could apply his
Precisionist style to more traditional subjects along with modern ones.
AFTER SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN,1920
• Rather than a traditional landscape scene, it depicts industrial architecture in Pennsylvania, the hometown of Demuth.
MACHINERY, 1920 ( CHARLES
DEMUTH)
• Despite abstract use of lines and planes, subject is identifiable.
• Scene of rooftop machinery set against windows, belonging to an adjacent factory building.
• Was dedicated to his friend William
Carlos Williams, who wrote ‘There is nothing sentimental about a machine’ and ‘A poem is but a small machine of words’.
• The barn, as the artist depicts it, is stark in colour and design, and precisely delineated.
• Picture space divided into 3 distinct parts; the sky, the building, the ground.
• Unintentionally threedimensional look rendered to it due to the sombre colouring and massive size.
WHITE CANADIAN BARN, 1932(GEORGIA O’KEEFFE)
• The artist distilled essential geometric shapes from each architectural element in the painting. VASE OF FLOWERS, 1926
(PRESTON DICKINSON)
• Dickinson frequently worked in still life. • Skill at representing traditional ideas in more avant-garde ideas of perspective and composition
• Object is of an illusionistic nature, however the use of sharp edges for the table convey the artist’s yearning for newer means of representation.
• The ashtray with a cigarette on its rim is a surprisingly modern touch, in spite of the presence of classic still life objects • Though subjects tend to be mystifying and with a Surrealist bent, Blume’s technique possessed sharp clarity.
• The painting is an outcome of a road trip of the artist, whereby he travelled from New York through the coalfields of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and finally South Carolina.
• The artist, in an attempt to weld the scenes and draw logical connections, explains that he felt all ties breaking loose. A moment when he felt the
German sailors were objects free in
SOUTH OF SCRANTON, 1931(PETER BLUME space, like birds.
FORMS
IN
SPACE,
1927
(JOHN
STORRS)
• Storrs was the son of a Chicago architect
• His sculpture would always be influenced by the native architecture of his city.
• Formal experiments with volume and space, balance of vertical and
horizontal
