Lot Details
Lot 191
Stuart Davis
American, 1892-1964
Sketchbook 10-6 (Masts), 1932
Graphite pencil on paper
7 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Thence by descent to his son, Earl Davis
Acquired directly from the above
Exhibited:
New York, Stuart Davis: Drawings, Prints & Paintings, Associated American Artists, Dec. 4, 1991-Jan. 4, 1992, no. 19
Gloucester, Massachusetts, Stuart Davis in Gloucester, Cape Ann Historical Museum, Jun. 5-Nov. 27, 1999, p. 102, fig. 24, illus. (traveled to Wilmington, Delaware Art Museum, Jan. 21-Mar. 19, 2000; and New York, National Academy of Design, May 3-Jul. 30, 2000)
Boston, Stuart Davis in Gloucester, Alpha Gallery, Oct. 3-Oct. 30, 2002, checklist no. 10
Little Rock, Arkansas, 2003 Collectors Show and Sale, Arkansas Art Center, Oct. 2003 - Jan. 2004
New York, Dynamic Impulse: The Drawings of Stuart Davis, Hollis Taggart Galleries, Nov. 28, 2007-Jan. 12, 2008, no. 26, illus.
Literature:
Boyajian, Ani and Rutkoski, Mark, editors, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonne, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007, vol. 2, p. 172, no. 362, illus.
Stuart Davis: Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exhibition catalogue, New York: Associated American Artists, 1991, illus. n.p., cat. no. 19
Wilkin, Karen, Stuart Davis in Gloucester, Lenox, Massachusetts: Hard Press Editions, 1999, p. 102, fig. 24, illus.
During the 1930s, Stuart Davis divided his time between painting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and teaching at the Art Students League in New York. The present sketch is from this prolific era and was most likely produced alongside the many Gloucester harbor and boat scenes of this decade. This drawing in particular is from a sketchbook originally containing eleven pages of drawings focusing on harbor elements-ropes, derricks, rigging, masts, and bows.
Similar to his more abstract works, the masts of this sketch appear like a grid dividing the empty space around it. In autobiographical notes, Davis referred to masts as "color-space coordinate between earth and sky." At this time Davis' work was exhibited in New York at the Downtown Gallery and was featured at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. Davis also completed murals in Manhattan and Brooklyn for the WPA.
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