.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Stuart Davis is revered as one of the most important American painters of the twentieth century. European Cubists and artists such as Mondrian and Leger were influential in Davis' experimentation with his subject matter, although Davis went beyond the Cubists with his abstract shapes and bold colors.
In 1927, Stuart Davis mocked the traditional still life on a table by nailing an eggbeater, an electric fan and a rubber glove to a table and painted them repeatedly for a year. The 1927 to 1928 Egg Beater series were among his most abstract paintings to date. Davis explained these works, "Their subject is an invented series of planes which were...drawn in perspective and light and shade." He eliminated details, "to strip [the] subject down to the real physical source of its stimulus. I felt that a subject has its emotional reality fundamentally through our awareness of such planes and their spatial relationship." (as quoted in J.J. Sweeney, Stuart Davis, New York, 1945, p. 16)
Instead of the composition being a traditional still life painting with the object the subject, Davis has the shapes and colors the subject of the still life. E.C. Goossen notes, "everywhere what is suggested as setting up directional depth inward is frustrated by the interruption of the plane or line stopping the eye's journey, turning it along a new path, only to be turned shortly again. Curves emanating from points tangent to the edge of another plane slide the eye around, leading it always back to the recognition of the flat triangle. And though there is a suggestion of 'light and shade' just where it comes from is impossible to determine."(Stuart Davis, p. 22)
In Egg Beater No. 4, the fan appears to be the curved lines against the black background on the right hand side of the composition. The eggbeater (the orange shape at left) is framed by the white trapezoid with shapes floating to the right. Davis's use of color clarifies the spatial perception, exaggerating each plane, whether overlapped or separated.
Davis blended these abstract still lifes with American culture and living. In Egg Beater No. 4, the artist mixed the eggbeater, fan and glove with a city landscape. Lowery Stokes Sims observes of the composition, "Davis demonstrates that particular juncture of still life and urban landscape that he favored. The space opens up into a kind of plaza at the right...The back wall seems to open onto a roadside space, and, once more, what appear to be the tops of buildings close off the composition in the upper center." (Stuart Davis: American Painter, p. 189)
This group of paintings are among his most abstract and pure works. Davis emphasizes the importance of the Egg Beater series: "You might say that everything I have done since has been based on that eggbeater idea." (E.C. Goossen, Stuart Davis, New York, 1959, p. 21)
This painting will be included in Ani Boyajian's and Mark Rutkoski's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's works.
In 1927, Stuart Davis mocked the traditional still life on a table by nailing an eggbeater, an electric fan and a rubber glove to a table and painted them repeatedly for a year. The 1927 to 1928 Egg Beater series were among his most abstract paintings to date. Davis explained these works, "Their subject is an invented series of planes which were...drawn in perspective and light and shade." He eliminated details, "to strip [the] subject down to the real physical source of its stimulus. I felt that a subject has its emotional reality fundamentally through our awareness of such planes and their spatial relationship." (as quoted in J.J. Sweeney, Stuart Davis, New York, 1945, p. 16)
Instead of the composition being a traditional still life painting with the object the subject, Davis has the shapes and colors the subject of the still life. E.C. Goossen notes, "everywhere what is suggested as setting up directional depth inward is frustrated by the interruption of the plane or line stopping the eye's journey, turning it along a new path, only to be turned shortly again. Curves emanating from points tangent to the edge of another plane slide the eye around, leading it always back to the recognition of the flat triangle. And though there is a suggestion of 'light and shade' just where it comes from is impossible to determine."(Stuart Davis, p. 22)
In Egg Beater No. 4, the fan appears to be the curved lines against the black background on the right hand side of the composition. The eggbeater (the orange shape at left) is framed by the white trapezoid with shapes floating to the right. Davis's use of color clarifies the spatial perception, exaggerating each plane, whether overlapped or separated.
Davis blended these abstract still lifes with American culture and living. In Egg Beater No. 4, the artist mixed the eggbeater, fan and glove with a city landscape. Lowery Stokes Sims observes of the composition, "Davis demonstrates that particular juncture of still life and urban landscape that he favored. The space opens up into a kind of plaza at the right...The back wall seems to open onto a roadside space, and, once more, what appear to be the tops of buildings close off the composition in the upper center." (Stuart Davis: American Painter, p. 189)
This group of paintings are among his most abstract and pure works. Davis emphasizes the importance of the Egg Beater series: "You might say that everything I have done since has been based on that eggbeater idea." (E.C. Goossen, Stuart Davis, New York, 1959, p. 21)
This painting will be included in Ani Boyajian's and Mark Rutkoski's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's works.