Francis Criss Research Paper
Visual Art Awareness
Francis Criss Francis Hyman Criss was an American painter. Criss 's style is associated with the American Precisionists like Charles Demuth and his friend Charles Sheeler. (http://www.in.com/francis-criss/biography-94231.html) The years he is most known for is between 1930 to 1950. His work largely uses images of urban environments. Examples are elevated subway tracks, skyscrapers, streets. Criss used these abstract styles, mostly without human figures, in his works. He is most considered to be part of the Precisionism movement. With many dream like works these empty cityscapes also suggest the influence of Surrealism. (Cole, Sewing) Criss was born in London in 1901 and moved to London with his family at age 4. He began to sketch and paint when he was young and won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1917. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1921, and later the Art Students League of New York and the Barnes Foundation. (Cole, Sewing). Later he studied art in Europe, at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, and at the Art Students League in New York City.
The 1930s were a very prosperous time for Criss. In 1932 he …show more content…
exhibited his paintings in a show at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York and also had his work featured in the First Biennial Exhibition organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1933 Criss had a second solo exhibition and the following year won a Guggenheim Fellowship to make another trip abroad.(Cole, Sewing) In Criss’s painting Alma Sewing, a woman smiles to herself as she fashions a dress, taking pride in her creation.
This is one of Criss’s most popular works. When union membership was mostly white and mostly male, Criss chose an African American female worker as his subject and gave her a name. Black women didn’t have near the same opportunities as white men, but some were skilled at craft work such as making clothes. The dressmaker in her starched white apron is surrounded by gathers and folds of fabric. The edges of the shapes in this painting are crisp as are a lot of his works, and the colors are mostly flat with the barest amount of shading needed to suggest depth, revealing the painter 's admiration for the overlapping planes of Cubist paintings. (Cole,
Sewing) Criss was widely considered to be part of the Precisionism movement. All the artists who were known as the Precisionists never formally organized themselves as a group or issued a manifesto. They were associated through their common style and subjects. (Murphy, Jessica). Artists consistently reduced their compositions to simple shapes and underlying geometrical structures, with clear outlines, minimal detail, and smooth handling of surfaces. (Murphy, Jessica)
Works Cited
Cole, Sewing. JAMA.2009;302(18):1944. doi:10.1001/jama.2009.1616. UAkron Library http://ezproxy.uakron.edu:2256/article.aspx?articleid=184839
Murphy, Jessica. "Precisionism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prec/hd_prec.htm (June 2007) http://www.in.com/francis-criss/biography-94231.html (accessed October 14, 2013).
Francis Criss Francis Hyman Criss was an American painter. Criss 's style is associated with the American Precisionists like Charles Demuth and his friend Charles Sheeler. (http://www.in.com/francis-criss/biography-94231.html) The years he is most known for is between 1930 to 1950. His work largely uses images of urban environments. Examples are elevated subway tracks, skyscrapers, streets. Criss used these abstract styles, mostly without human figures, in his works. He is most considered to be part of the Precisionism movement. With many dream like works these empty cityscapes also suggest the influence of Surrealism. (Cole, Sewing) Criss was born in London in 1901 and moved to London with his family at age 4. He began to sketch and paint when he was young and won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1917. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1921, and later the Art Students League of New York and the Barnes Foundation. (Cole, Sewing). Later he studied art in Europe, at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, and at the Art Students League in New York City.
The 1930s were a very prosperous time for Criss. In 1932 he …show more content…
exhibited his paintings in a show at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York and also had his work featured in the First Biennial Exhibition organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1933 Criss had a second solo exhibition and the following year won a Guggenheim Fellowship to make another trip abroad.(Cole, Sewing) In Criss’s painting Alma Sewing, a woman smiles to herself as she fashions a dress, taking pride in her creation.
This is one of Criss’s most popular works. When union membership was mostly white and mostly male, Criss chose an African American female worker as his subject and gave her a name. Black women didn’t have near the same opportunities as white men, but some were skilled at craft work such as making clothes. The dressmaker in her starched white apron is surrounded by gathers and folds of fabric. The edges of the shapes in this painting are crisp as are a lot of his works, and the colors are mostly flat with the barest amount of shading needed to suggest depth, revealing the painter 's admiration for the overlapping planes of Cubist paintings. (Cole,
Sewing) Criss was widely considered to be part of the Precisionism movement. All the artists who were known as the Precisionists never formally organized themselves as a group or issued a manifesto. They were associated through their common style and subjects. (Murphy, Jessica). Artists consistently reduced their compositions to simple shapes and underlying geometrical structures, with clear outlines, minimal detail, and smooth handling of surfaces. (Murphy, Jessica)
Works Cited
Cole, Sewing. JAMA.2009;302(18):1944. doi:10.1001/jama.2009.1616. UAkron Library http://ezproxy.uakron.edu:2256/article.aspx?articleid=184839
Murphy, Jessica. "Precisionism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prec/hd_prec.htm (June 2007) http://www.in.com/francis-criss/biography-94231.html (accessed October 14, 2013).