Stuart Davis (1892-1964)
Shapes of Landscape and Space
ca. 1939-1940, Oil on canvas

Stuart Davis was born in 1892 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unlike many aspiring artists he was not discouraged from studying art, for both his parents were artists. His mother Helen was a sculptor and exhibited her work in both Philadelphia and New York. His father Edward was both an artist and the art director for the Philadelphia Press, a major newspaper in the city between 1857 and 1920. When Davis was nine, his family moved to East Orange, New Jersey where he attended school. After two years of high school, he went to New York to work on his painting with artist and teacher Robert Henri. Henri helped Davis develop a greater sensitivity to his environment. His teaching rejected academic rules and common standards of beauty. Rather, Henri encouraged experimentation and inspired the artist to look to his personal surroundings for subjects to paint and draw.

In 1913 Davis participated in an art show that changed his life and direction as an artist. The Armory Show introduced Americans to 1,600 works of a variety of mediums of advanced European modernism and contemporary American artists. Stuart Davis’ participation in the show included five watercolors, but the impact of the show inspired the artist to
become a “modern artist.”

He was greatly influenced by Cubism and attempted to absorb the qualities of shape and form utilized by Cubists into his own work. Finally after selling two paintings to the influential Juliana Force of the Whitney Studio Club he traveled to Paris in the summer of 1928. The artist returned to America in August 1929, broke and in time for the Great Depression. Elements from the artist’s year in Paris continued to appear in his work throughout his life. In 1945 the Museum of Modern Art exhibited a retrospective of his work and more exhibitions and recognition followed.He continued to paint and it is believed that some of his greatest work was done late in life.

About the Art:

Shapes of Landscape Space, ca. 1939-1940 presents Davis’
energetic interpretation of the modern urban environment in his
work. First shown in 1941 at the Cincinnati Modern Art
Society in an exhibition of the artist’s work with that of painter
Marsden Hartley, the painting contains noticeable overpainting. This was done by Davis. He regularly continued to dab at the canvas, using a variety of types of paint and colors. Discussion

Questions:

• What shapes do you see? What do you think the artist wanted these shapes to represent in the landscape?

• What colors do you see? Are they colors that you normally
see in a landscape?

• What types of lines do you use when you are painting a
landscape? Are they straight and rigid or loose and wavy?

• Is the painting balanced? Is it symmetrical?

• What would it feel like if you stepped into the painting?