Stuart Davis

Egg Beater No. 1
1927

Abstract cubist painting with a composition of various geometric shapes in a muted color palette, featuring greens, browns, blacks, and beiges, with hints of blue and orange, signed by the artist in the bottom right corner.

In 1927, Stuart Davis began work on a series of five paintings based on a still life he had created by nailing an eggbeater, an electric fan, and a rubber glove to a table in his studio. Using this group of incongruous and unlikely items, he created his first truly abstract works. In Egg Beater No. 1, Davis eliminated all recognizable traces of the still life objects, leaving only a complex composition of colors and overlapping geometric shapes whose interlocking planes suggest the influence of Pablo Picasso’s Synthetic Cubism. Like the other paintings in the series, this flat, spare, uncompromising statement is all the more remarkable for its adherence to advanced artistic ideas amid the general retreat from abstraction in America in the late 1920s. Still, Davis never considered himself a pure abstractionist, and would not work again in that vein for more than twenty years, instead interpreting the urban landscape through a bold graphic language of signs, words, and advertisements.

Not on view

Date
1927

Classification
Paintings

Medium
Oil on linen

Dimensions
Overall: 29 3/16 × 36 3/16in. (74.1 × 91.9 cm)

Accession number
31.169

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Rights and reproductions
© Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

API
artworks/476

Audio

Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1

In At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism (Spanish)

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Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1

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Narrator: En 1927, Stuart Davis comenzó a trabajar en una serie de cinco pinturas basadas en un bodegón que había creado al clavar en una mesa de su estudio una batidora de huevos, un ventilador eléctrico y un guante de goma. En Egg Beater No. 1, Davis eliminó todos los rastros reconocibles de los objetos del bodegón y dejó únicamente esta compleja composición de colores y formas geométricas superpuestas. Pero, como explicó más adelante, se resistía a la idea de la abstracción.
Stuart Davis: Nunca me he considerado un artista abstracto. En lo personal, creo que hablar de arte “abstracto” tiene muchas implicaciones peligrosas y engañosas. Deja de lado el hecho real de que lo que interesa en cualquier pintura son sus referencias específicas, que aunque puedan diferir entre los distintos espectadores, no dejan de ser específicas. Y calificar esas cosas específicas como abstractas nunca funcionó conmigo. Y en cuanto al contenido, considero el hecho de que doy importancia a las cosas sencillas que me dan placer, creo que ese es el contenido que tiene validez para mí.
Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1

In At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

0:00

Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1

0:00

Narrator: In 1927, Stuart Davis began work on a series of five paintings based on a still life he had created by nailing an eggbeater, an electric fan, and a rubber glove to a table in his studio. In Egg Beater No. 1, Davis eliminated all recognizable traces of the still life objects—leaving only this complex composition of colors and overlapping geometric shapes. But as he later explained, he resisted the idea of abstraction.
Stuart Davis: I have never regarded myself as an abstract artist. Personally I felt that talking about “abstract” art had many dangerous and misleading implications. That it cut off the real fact that what is interesting in any painting is its specific references, which however they may differ with different people that look at the painting, are nevertheless specific. And to call those specific things abstract always worked the wrong way with me. And as to the content of it, I regard the fact that I give importance to simple things that give me pleasure, I think that is the content that has validity with me.