Skip to main contentBiographyThe term Precisionism was initially coined in the 1920s to describe a quintessentially American style of painting. Partially derived from Cubism, it emphasized sharp edges and mechanistic subject matter. Charles Sheeler (1883–1965) was among the most innovative artists at the turn of the twentieth century and gained wide recognition for his precise structural compositions that explored urban, domestic, and industrial themes. Sheeler was at the forefront of Precisionism, one of the first modernist American art movements. While his work borders on abstraction, Sheeler’s paintings and photographs are entrenched in the material world.
A native of Philadelphia, Sheeler was enrolled at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Design from 1900 to 1903. He then studied with William Meritt Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1906, adopting an expressive style and spontaneous, loose brushwork. In 1908, Sheeler and his parents toured Italy, and the young artist was influenced by the architectonic style of Piero Della Francesca and Masaccio and as well as the planar styles of Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque. Following his return to the United States, Sheeler abandoned Chase’s impressionistic approach for a cubist-realist aesthetic that eventually caused a rift between teacher and student. [1]
After several successful group shows at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Sheeler had his first solo exhibition in Philadelphia in 1908. Five of his early paintings were selected by Arthur B. Davies for the famous 1913 Armory Show, which exposed Americans to European modernism on a large scale. Despite his early success with his painting, however, Sheeler relied on commercial photography to support himself. He lived in a nineteenth-century farmhouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which was a frequent subject of his sharply focused photographs. In 1927, the Ford Motor Company commissioned him to photograph their industrial plant in River Rouge, Michigan. The endeavor exposed Sheeler to a machinist aesthetic, which he began to integrate into his paintings. The influence of industrial aesthetics has led some scholars to characterize the artist’s work as an expression of the heroism American capitalism. [2]
Sheeler’s interest in commercial and industrial subjects was of little interest to other artists at the time. In an essay written for an exhibition of American art in 1916, Sheeler wrote, “All qualities of visual communication are material for the plastic artist; and he is free to use as many or as few as at the moment concern him. To oppose or relate these so as to communicate his sensations of some particular manifestation of cosmic order—this I believe to be the business of the artist.” [3] Sheeler continued to explore the precise beauty of industrial subjects until his death in 1965.
Notes:
[1] Gloria-Gilda Deák, Kennedy Galleries’ Profiles of American artists (New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1984), 221.
[2] Mark Rawlinson, Charles Sheeler: Modernism, Precisionism and the Borders of Abstraction (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), 1.
[3] Charles Sheeler, “Sensibility and Order,” in Artists on Art: From the XIV to the XX Century, Robert Goldwater ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1945), 474.
Charles Sheeler
1883 - 1965
A native of Philadelphia, Sheeler was enrolled at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Design from 1900 to 1903. He then studied with William Meritt Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1906, adopting an expressive style and spontaneous, loose brushwork. In 1908, Sheeler and his parents toured Italy, and the young artist was influenced by the architectonic style of Piero Della Francesca and Masaccio and as well as the planar styles of Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque. Following his return to the United States, Sheeler abandoned Chase’s impressionistic approach for a cubist-realist aesthetic that eventually caused a rift between teacher and student. [1]
After several successful group shows at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Sheeler had his first solo exhibition in Philadelphia in 1908. Five of his early paintings were selected by Arthur B. Davies for the famous 1913 Armory Show, which exposed Americans to European modernism on a large scale. Despite his early success with his painting, however, Sheeler relied on commercial photography to support himself. He lived in a nineteenth-century farmhouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which was a frequent subject of his sharply focused photographs. In 1927, the Ford Motor Company commissioned him to photograph their industrial plant in River Rouge, Michigan. The endeavor exposed Sheeler to a machinist aesthetic, which he began to integrate into his paintings. The influence of industrial aesthetics has led some scholars to characterize the artist’s work as an expression of the heroism American capitalism. [2]
Sheeler’s interest in commercial and industrial subjects was of little interest to other artists at the time. In an essay written for an exhibition of American art in 1916, Sheeler wrote, “All qualities of visual communication are material for the plastic artist; and he is free to use as many or as few as at the moment concern him. To oppose or relate these so as to communicate his sensations of some particular manifestation of cosmic order—this I believe to be the business of the artist.” [3] Sheeler continued to explore the precise beauty of industrial subjects until his death in 1965.
Notes:
[1] Gloria-Gilda Deák, Kennedy Galleries’ Profiles of American artists (New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1984), 221.
[2] Mark Rawlinson, Charles Sheeler: Modernism, Precisionism and the Borders of Abstraction (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), 1.
[3] Charles Sheeler, “Sensibility and Order,” in Artists on Art: From the XIV to the XX Century, Robert Goldwater ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1945), 474.
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