STUART DAVIS: STUDY
FOR A DRAWING
Davisâs jostling
forms are extreme
simplifications of real objects
or environments that
served as
initial points of interest. His inventive gift
lies in the remarkable
way he
is able to retain a general flavor or sense
of an observed scene
through
an almost completely nonobjective vocabulary.
Stuart
Davis
(1892-1964) was a pioneer American modernist who used stylistic aspects
of European synthetic cubism to depict the American cityscapes that so
fascinated him. His colorful paintings, in major museum
collections
throughout the world, draw their inspiration from jazz music and the
artistâs
appreciation for the freshness and vitality that characterized America
in the first half of the twentieth century.
Davisâs 1955
screenprint Study for a Drawing is a small, delightful work
that
is alive with the fragmented, syncopated energy that characterizes his
best pictures. Using the primary colors red and blue as well as
black
and white, Davis reduces visual experience down to its
fundamentals.
His flat, geometric forms can be thought of as the building blocks
of representation. Resembling cutout shapes a child may create,
the
forms are meant to present a highly generalized version of the urban
activity
that Davis saw around him. In Study for a Drawing, Davis
infuses
often dark or cerebral cubism with a festive air. The picture at
first glance reminds one of Mondrian; however, the active composition
of
the print demonstrates the power of diagonals and irregular contours to
impart a feeling or tone very different from the austere mood of
Mondrianâs
canvases.
Like the
image
itself, the title of this work is something of a puzzle. Drawings
tend to be spontaneous and are often done in preparation for a
labor-intensive
print. Here, those practices appear to be reversed. The
print
is the study and may have been an exercise for the artist in working
out
design elements that would figure into a major drawing or major series
of drawings. The title conveys the idea of Davis involved in a
process,
where the image, seemingly produced in a sudden burst of creativity, is
actually the product of a number of careful steps of abstraction.
Davisâs jostling forms are extreme simplifications of real
objects or environments
that served as initial points of interest. His inventive gift
lies
in the remarkable way he is able to retain a general flavor or sense of
an observed scene through an almost completely nonobjective vocabulary.
The
Brauer Museum
of Art is proud to own a fine example of Stuart Davisâs
work. Davisâs
contribution to the history of American art is highly significant; a
survey
of early modernism would be incomplete without a work by this
artist.
The white wooden frame that surrounds Study for a Drawing is
modeled
after the frame style that Davis used for many of his paintings during
his life. Designed and crafted by master framer Bronislaw Janulis
of South Bend, it too is a work of art, worthy of attention and
appreciation.
© by Gregg Hertzlieb
