precisionism

American  

[pri-sizh-uh-niz-uhm] / prɪˈsɪʒ əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a style of painting developed to its fullest in the U.S. in the 1920s, associated especially with Charles Demuth, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Charles Sheeler, and characterized by clinically precise, simple, and clean-edged rendering of architectural, industrial, or urban scenes usually devoid of human activity or presence.

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Other Word Forms

• precisionist noun
• precisionistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of precisionism

First recorded in 1955–60; precision + -ism

Example Sentences

These sorts of arguments can be part of a communications strategy called "precisionism," says Hayek.

From Salon • Feb. 13, 2021

The show is an overview of precisionism, the modern American movement that fetishized factories, ball bearings, silos and skyscrapers in an attempt to merge American realism with European abstraction.

From Washington Post • Apr. 6, 2018

But by and large, like most technophile visions, precisionism aged badly.

From Washington Post • Apr. 6, 2018

There were the new open sculptures of Archipenko, the mobiles of Calder, the precisionism of Charles Sheeler, the cubism of Max Weber, and the soaring abstractions of Joseph Stella.

From Time Magazine Archive

What he and other artists like Ralston Crawford and Sheeler made of this rich, untapped subject acquired the name precisionism.

From Time Magazine Archive