Fantasies of Precision: American Modern Art, 1908-1947

In the early 20th century, a group of artists in New York City created the precisionist movement, known for its precise depictions of modern life. Fantasies of Precision explores the movement's connections and the "ethos of precision" that guided its artists, including Charles Sheeler, Georgia OKeeffe, and Charles Demuth. By challenging traditional art historical categories, the book offers a fresh perspective on this important artistic movement.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 360 pages
Publication date: 11 July 2023
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

In the early 1900s, a group of artists emerged in and around New York City, giving rise to a movement known as precisionism. This movement is primarily remembered for its precise representations of skyscrapers, factories, machine parts, and other symbols of a burgeoning modernity. While often considered a singular group, these artists were remarkably diverse in their subject matter and stylistic traits.

Fantasies of Precision delves into the surprising connections between these artists, exploring notions of precision across philosophy, technology, medicine, and many other fields. The book is bookended by discussions of the landmark First Biennial Exhibition of Painting at the Whitney Museum in 1932, which brought these artists to the forefront of the art world.

Woven together through a series of interconnected chapters, the book illuminates the careers of Charles Sheeler, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Charles Demuth. Built on a theoretical framework of the writing of modernist poets Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams, Fantasies of Precision outlines an "ethos of precision" that runs through the diverse practices of these artists. It articulates how the broad range of enigmatic imagery they produced was underpinned by shared strategies of restraint, humility, and slowness.

By questioning straightforward modes of art historical classification, Ashley Lazevnick redefines the concept that designated the precisionist movement. Through its cross-disciplinary approach and unique blend of historiography and fantasy, Fantasies of Precision offers a comprehensive reevaluation of one of the defining movements of artistic modernism.

Weight: 862g
Dimension: 177 x 255 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517913144