cover image The Mysticism of Money

The Mysticism of Money

Andrew Hemingway. Periscope (Prestel, dist.), $45 (294pp) ISBN 978-1-934772-80-5

The detailed and cerebral scrutiny at the heart of this analysis attempts to reconsider Precisionist art as an expression of "romantic anti-capitalism" rather than through pro-manufacturing philosophy as it is regularly understood. Precisionist art had a moment of popularity in the 1920s; perhaps most commonly associated with the artist Charles Sheeler and images of industrial landscapes. Hemingway, however, prefers to shift the attention to three lesser-known artists%E2%80%94Stefan Hirsch, Louis Lozowick, and George C. Ault%E2%80%94in order to infuse his reading of Precisionist painting with anti-capitalist and communist philosophies, and to emphasize the process of reification. To accomplish this, Hemingway constructs an elaborate and exacting structure, contextualizing the artists within the broader world of American Modernism as well as 1920s communist criticism; the work of Georg Lukacs; modernist and experimental "little magazines"; and related threads of intellectualism, Critical Theory, and art criticism. The resulting text is an imposing body of research and learned rhetoric, and Hemingway completes his arguments and re-casting of Precisionist art while leaving little room for disagreement. His thorough research is rendered in demanding prose, though avoids arduousness. An important revision of an art-historical moment accompanied by images that had not previously been reproduced, its engagement relies entirely on its scholarly value. Color illustrations. (May)