Monday Morning Museum: Precisionism

Precisionism – America from the 1920s to the 1930s

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." – Wkipedia.org

In addition to Preston Dickinson (see art example below), other Precisionist are Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler.

Still Life With Vase of Chinese Lanterns, by Preston Dickinson (1891-1930

Last Monday’s Art – Post-Impressionism
Next Monday’s Art – The Pre-Raphaelites

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Monday Morning Museum: Charles Demuth

Self-Portrait, 1907 by Charles Demuth

Charles Demuth – Thursday 8 November 1883 Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Wednesday 23 October 1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania

American Precisionist Painter

I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928

"This painting pays homage to a poem by William Carlos Williams. Like Marsden Hartley's "Portrait of a German Officer" and Arthur Dove's "Ralph Dusenberry," this portrait consists not of a physical likeness of the artist's friend but of an accumulation of images associated with him — the poet's initials and the names "Bill" and "Carlos" that together form a portrait.

Williams' poem "The Great Figure" describes the experience of seeing a red fire engine with the number 5 painted on it racing through the city streets. While Demuth's painting is not an illustration of Williams's poem, we can certainly sense its "rain/and lights" and the "gong clangs/siren howls/and wheels rumbling." The bold 5 both rapidly recedes and races forward in space, and the round forms of the number, the lights, the street lamp, and the arcs at the lower left and upper right are played against the straight lines of the fire engine, the buildings, and the rays of light, infusing the picture with a rushing energy that perfectly expresses the spirit of the poem." – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Georges de la Tour
Next Monday’s Artist – Jean-Antoine Houdon

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent