{"data":{"id":"330","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":330,"topgoose_id":2341,"tms_id":330,"display_name":"Stuart Davis","sort_name":"Davis Stuart","display_date":"1892–1964","begin_date":"1892","end_date":"1964","biography":"\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1920s Stuart Davis developed\nan innovative style that fused the abstracted\ngeometries of European Cubism with subject\nmatter derived from American popular\nculture, especially advertising, newspapers,\nand everyday consumer objects. In late\n1927 he began a series of four still-life\npaintings based on a grouping of unlikely\nitems: an eggbeater, an electric fan, and\na rubber glove that he had nailed to a table\nin his studio. During the year he spent\nworking exclusively on the series, Davis\nhomed in on the most essential formal\nproperties of the objects. “Gradually through\nthis concentration,” he remarked, “I focused\non the logical elements. . . . The immediate\nand accidental aspects of the still life\ntook second place.” In \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/476\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEgg Beater No. 1\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e,\u003c/em\u003e\nthe most flat and austere work of the\nseries, Davis transformed his subject into\na rhythmic arrangement of geometric\nforms, reaching a level of abstraction that\nwas unprecedented in his work.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore often during the 1920s and\n1930s, Davis’s real-world sources were\nabstracted but still recognizable, as in \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1607\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHouse\nand Street\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, which depicts the intersection\nof Front Street and Coenties Slip in lower\nManhattan. The painting’s split image\nsuggests the Cubist ambition to portray\nmultiple viewpoints simultaneously, but its\ndistinctively New York subject matter, including the Third Avenue elevated train,\nsets it apart from European precedents.\nDavis used the urban landscape to explore\nhis fascination with the graphic language of\nsigns and advertisements: the painting\nincludes the word \u003cem\u003eFront\u003c/em\u003e, for Front Street,\nthe bell icon of the city’s telephone company,\nand the name \u003cem\u003eSmith\u003c/em\u003e, which likely refers to\nAlfred E. Smith, the popular governor of New\nYork State who was running for reelection\nin 1926, the year Davis made the drawing on\nwhich this painting was based.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\nIn the final years of his career, Davis\nfrequently used earlier compositions as\nspringboards for new paintings marked by a\ncomplex language of unmodulated planar\nforms and densely woven lines. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/2625\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Paris Bit\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\nis based on the canvas \u003cem\u003eRue Lipp\u003c/em\u003e, a cafe\nscene he produced during his Paris sojourn\nin 1928. With its inclusion of the number\ntwenty-eight and the words \u003cem\u003eeau, Belle\nFrance\u003c/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003etabac\u003c/em\u003e, Davis pays homage in\n\u003cem\u003eThe Paris Bit\u003c/em\u003e to his earlier composition\nand his seminal experiences in Paris, where\nhe was able to study Cubism firsthand.\nAt the same time, the painting’s enlarged\n110\nWillem de Kooning b. 1904; Rotterdam, Netherlands\nd. 1997; East Hampton, NY\n111\nscale and network of calligraphic\nforms reflect the influence of vanguard\nAmerican painting in the 1950s,\nespecially Abstract Expressionism.\nThe words “lines thicken,” added to the\npainting’s outer border, seem to\nacknowledge the painting’s more solid\nrendering in comparison with its\nearlier counterpart.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500115507","wikidata_id":"Q704588","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:19:21.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-13T07:01:22.966-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/330/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/330/exhibitions"}}}}