Introduction to Stuart Davis: In Full Swing

Narrator: Hi! Welcome to the Whitney. Today we’re going to look at paintings by Stuart Davis. To start, let’s imagine what it was like when he began painting, about 100 years ago. 

Try to remember a time from your own life when everything seemed totally new and exciting. Like you just found out something amazing existed, and you’d never even imagined it before.

In the 1920s almost everything seemed like that: cars, electricity, things made in factories, and Davis’s very favorite, jazz music. Davis thought it seemed wrong to paint all these new things in the same way people had painted for hundreds of years. He began to experiment, using abstract shapes and bright colors. He made modern paintings that matched the energy of the world around him. Let’s go take a closer look!