Precisionism

Martin Friedman, explained that “Well, people – they built [a building] with utility in mind; and that wasn’t accidental because they knew how the [building] had to function for their purpose. They weren’t building a work of art. However, if it’s beautiful to some of us afterwards, it’s beautiful because it functioned. The functional intention was very beautifully realized” (Sheeler to Friedman). The pure act of creating to be used, for Sheeler, was the definition of modernism. Only once you move beyond the arguments against ornamentation and for simplified forms, you can reach a sense of purpose, and that is Sheeler’s ultimate message for his industrial subjects. While he may have found his original direction in the detached coolness of Precisionism, he created novelty by incorporating the power of memory. Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the fathers of modernist architects summed up why Sheeler was inspired by the Shakers: “The true basis for any serious study of the art of architecture still lies in those indigenous, more humble buildings everywhere that are to architecture what folklore it to literature. These many folk structures are the soil, natural. Though often slight, their virtue is intimately related to environment and the heart-life of people” (Frank Lloyd Wright). Sheeler used his photography to combine the new American Machine Age’s with its roots. Sheeler’s paintings do not feel outdated fifty years later. Their lack of a personal signature or human figure keep…

The subject matter of Precisionism celebrated the Machine-age, depicting skylines, buildings, and industrial landscapes, devoid of human activity. “Precisionism is not an art of social criticism. Precisionism is a “cool” art, keep[ing] the viewer at a distance; the artist’s attitude seems to be one of complete detachment, in which [the artist] achieves largely by smoothing out his brushstrokes, erasing, as it were, his personal handwriting” (Britannica). Sheeler pioneered the Precisionist style…

Georgia O'keefe is known as the Mother of American Modernism. She was one of the first American artists to practice abstract art. O'Keefe created hundreds of paintings throughout her life and was a forerunner to modernism. O'Keeffe was born in 1887 in Wisconsin. When she was 16, however, she moved to Virginia with her family. In 1907 she began studying at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Sadly, soon after she began college, her father went bankrupt, and her mother began to suffer…

because in the painting Sheeler uses value to show light and shadows. We had a whole day where we did value studies to show how to draw shadows and incorporate light into our drawing. I enjoyed how Sheeler used light in his painting, especially that shadow that the light source gave the chair. It was very eye-catching. That was very well lined up and you can tell what direction the light was coming from and what it is coming out of. In my future drawings, from studying this painting, I am going…

new car, and the car is not functioning how a new car should be cause her windshield wipers are not working. However Bergmann is not crying and acting like it is the end of the word. The reason I point this out the because if you think about having efficient working wipers are extremely important because it’s a life, or death situation if it starts pouring heavy rain and she still can not see hence the reason why she ran over Williams red wheelbarrows in the first place. But she is not…

O’Keeffe worked in series, incorporating abstraction and realism to produce artworks that emphasised various forms of nature. While several of her works remain highly detailed, an extensive amount of her works were created by stripping away what was considered ‘inessential’ to focus on the shape and colour and create an abstract theme. Through extreme observation off natures beauty, extensive experimentation with scale and a variation of line and colour, O’Keeffe’s art became iconic in American…