Precisionism

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ART HISTORY 4450 Precisionism

Stuart Davis (1894-1964) • •

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biography: – father  art editor Philadelphia Press training: – at age 16, studied @ New York School of Art under Robert Henri • develops left-wing views • contributes to radical journal, The Masses, c. 1911 significance: first outstanding American to work in Cubist idiom mature work: visit to Paris (1928-29) – bases style on Synthetic Cubism – forms suggest environment of American life – flat poster-like patterns – precise outlines – sharply contrasting colors

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Davis

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Lucky Strike (1921) – – –

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title: popular American cigarette brand theme: proto-Pop Art (c. 1960s) aesthetic: see Synthetic Cubism • collage-like • flat poster-like patterns forms: • precise outlines • tension between verticals, horizontals & undulating lines color: unmodulated & complimentary

Davis’ Eggbeater, No. 4 (1928)

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Davis’ Mellow Pad (1945)

Charles Demuth (1883-1935)

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biography: born in Lancaster, PA training: – PAFA (1905-08) – travels to Paris, London and Berlin (1907) – second trip to Paris (1912) • studies at three academies • Modern, Julian, and Colarossi. aesthetic: Cubist-Realist – hard, flat, prismatic shapes – crisscrossing diagonals – streams of light subjects: industrial motifs, ships, and simple country architecture

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Demuth’s Modern Conveniences (1921)

Demuth’s My Egypt (1927)

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Demuth •

The Figure 5 in Gold (1928) – –

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aesthetic: Cubo/Futurist subject: series of eight abstract portraits (1924-29) of D’s friends • exhibited at Stieglitz's Gallery 291 • homage to poem by William Carlos Williams concept: portrait • not physical likeness • accumulation of images associated with the poet – initials – names "Bill" and "Carlos”

Charles Sheeler (1883-1965)

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biography: son of steamer-line executive in Philadelphia training: PAFA (1903) travel: Paris (1908) career: realized would not make a living w/ Modernist painting; took up commercial photography significance: explored relationships btw’n photography & painting w/ intellectual discipline subjects: avoided figures forms: near-abstract style: impacted by role of photography exact, hard, flat, big & industrial no expressive strokes of paint

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Sheeler •

Church Street El (1920) –

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relationship to film/photography: • “Photography is nature seen from the eyes outward, painting from the eyes inward” (Sheeler, 1938) perspective: high angle • derived from experimental film, Manhattan (1920), Sheeler shot w/ Paul Strand subject: American structures/industrial ideologies forms: near-abstract, geometric anonymous architecture composition: dynamic color: muted brushwork: controlled & academic

(Left) Strand’s photograph From the El (1915) vs. (right) Sheeler’s Precisionist Church Street El (1920)

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Sheeler •

American Landscape (1930) – –

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theme: big industry issue: environment • no nature at all, except for sky (plume of tall smokestack) • water of a dead canal forms: corresponds to Cezanne • sphere, cube, & cylinder • yet no longer sought in nature composition: dynamic color: naturalistic light./shadow: reflective (see Impressionism) brushwork: controlled; academic

Sheeler’s Classic Landscape (1931)

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Sheeler’s River Rouge Plant (1932)

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) •

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biography: married to Alfred Stieglitz – S left wife to live w/ O’K, divorcing in 1924 training: – Art Institute of Chicago (1905) – Art Students League (1907) exhibition history: first solo opened at 291 in April 1917 career: by mid-1920s, known as one of America's most important artists themes: – cityscapes – enlarged single flowers – landscapes (NM) scale: photographic qualities & part-of-whole cropping creates abstraction

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O’Keeffe

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Blue and Green Music (1921) – – – –

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subject: Romantic (see Kandinsky) aesthetic: non-objective perspective: influence of photo- & cinematography forms: tension between hard-edged and undulating, organic (see Futurism) composition: dynamic color: narrow range of muted tones light/shadow: dramatic contrasts

(Left) O’Keeffe’s City Night (1926); and (right) O’Keefe’s The Shelton with Sun Spots, NYC (1926)

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O’Keeffe’s Ballet Skirt; or Electric Light (1927)

(Left) O’Keeffe’s Precisionist Black Iris (c. 1925) vs. (right) Renoir’s Impressionist Roses in a Vase (c. 1875)

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(Left) O’Keeffe’s Precisionist Black Iris (c. 1925) vs. (right) van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist Irises (c. 1890)

O’Keefe’s Green Mountains, Canada (1932)

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(Left) O’Keefe’s Precisionist Green Mountains, Canada (1932) vs. (right) CEZANNE’s Post-Impressionist Mount Sainte-Victoire (c. 1890)

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From the Faraway, Nearby (1938) – –

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aesthetic: Surreal title: originally, Deer's Horns, Near Cameron • after her 1937 camping trip to Arizona w/ photographer Ansel Adams • later gave is more poetic title that suggests both physical and emotional reality setting: "a beautiful, untouched lonely-feeling place" motifs: combined skeletal and landscape imagery • disregards relative size, scale, or perspective • renders each element in equally sharp focus • effect blurs spatial distinctions between near and far color: pastel

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IMAGE INDEX • •

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DAVIS, Stuart. The Masses (November 1913).

DAVIS, Stuart. Lucky Strike (1921), Oil on canvas, 33 ¼ x 18 in., Gift of The American Tobacco Company, Inc., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

DAVIS, Stuart. Eggbeater, No. 4 (1928), Oil on canvas, 27 x 38 1/8 in., The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. DAVIS, Stuart. Mellow Pad (1945), Oil on canvas, 26 x 42 in., Brooklyn Museum, New York.

DEMUTH, Charles. Self-Portrait.

DEMUTH, Charles. Modern Conveniences (1921), Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 21 3/8 in., Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio.

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DEMUTH, Charles. My Egypt (1927), Oil on board, 35 ¾ x 30 in., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

DEMUTH, Charles. The Figure 5 in Gold (1928), Oil on composition board, 36 x 29 3/4 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA), New York.

Photograph of Charles SHEELER. SHEELER, Charles. Church Street El (1920), Oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 19 1/8 in., Cleveland Museum of Art, OH. (Left) Strand’s photograph From the El (1915); and (right) Sheeler’s Precisionist Church Street El (1920) SHEELER, Charles. American Landscape (1930), Oil on canvas, 24 x 31 in., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

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IMAGE INDEX •

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SHEELER, Charles. Classic Landscape (1931), Oil on canvas, 24 ¾ x 32 ¼ in., Mr. and Mrs. Barney A. Ebsworth Foundation.

SHEELER, Charles. River Rouge Plant (1932), Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 1/8 in., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Photograph of Georgia O’KEEFE. O’KEEFE, Georgia. Blue and Green Music (1921), Oil on canvas, 23 x 18 in., Alfred Stieglitz Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago.

(Left) O’KEEFE’s City Night (1926); and (right) The Shelton with Sunspots, NYC (1926), Oil on canvas, 48 ½ x 30 ¼ in., The Art Institute of Chicago.

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O’KEEFE, Georgia. Ballet Skirt or Electric Light (1927), Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 in., Alfred Stieglitz Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago.

(Left) O’KEEFE’s Precisionist Irises (c. 1925); and (right) RENOIR’s Impressionist Roses and Jasmine in a Delft Vase (c. 1880), Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 5/8 in., The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

(Left) O’KEEFE’s Precisionist Irises (c. 1925); and (right) VAN GOGH’s Post-Impressionist Irises (1890).

O’KEEFE, Georgia. Green Mountains, Canada (1932), Oil on canvas, 12 x 36 in., Alfred Stieglitz Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago.

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IMAGE INDEX •

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(Left) O’KEEFFE’s Precisionist Green Mountains, Canada (1932); and (right) CEZANNE’s Post-Impressionist Mt. Sainte-Victoire (1885-1895), Oil on canvas, 28 5/8 x 38 1/8 in., The Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA. O’KEEFFE, Georgia. From the Faraway, Nearby (1938), Oil on canvas 36 x 40 1/8 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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