Editing Precisionism (section)

{{short description|Art movement}}
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[[Image:Demuth Charles Aucassiu and Nicolette 1921.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Charles Demuth]], ''Aucassin and Nicolette,'' oil on canvas, 1921]]

'''Precisionism''' was a [[modernist]] [[art movement]] that emerged in the [[United States]] after [[World War I]]. Influenced by [[Cubism]], [[Purism]], and [[Futurism]], Precisionist artists reduced subjects to their essential geometric shapes, eliminated detail, and often used planes of light to create a sense of crisp focus and suggest the sleekness and sheen of machine forms. At the height of its popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, Precisionism celebrated the new American landscape of [[skyscraper]]s, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism."<ref>Milton Brown, ''American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), pp. 114–115.</ref>  The term "Precisionism" was first coined in the mid-1920s, possibly by [[Museum of Modern Art]] director Alfred H. Barr<ref>Gail Stavitsky, ''Precisionism in America, 1915–1941: Reordering Reality'' (New York: Abrams, 1994), p. 21.</ref> although according to [[Amy Dempsey]] the term "Precisionism" was coined by [[Charles Sheeler]].<ref>[Styles, schools and movements, published by Thames & Hudson 2002 Amy Dempsey]</ref> Painters working in this style were also known as the "Immaculates", which was the more commonly used term at the time.<ref>Stavitsky, p. 19.</ref> The stiffness of both art-historical labels suggests the difficulties contemporary critics had in attempting to characterize these artists.