Detail Study #1 for "Package Deal"

Stuart DavisWW-1956-135773

1956·Gouache with graphite on off-white wove paper·41.1 × 33.1 cm (16 3/16 × 13 1/16 in.)

Although he studied with the quintessential early 20th-century American painter Robert Henri, Stuart Davis was profoundly influenced by European abstract art, especially the flattened planes of Cubist art that he saw at the 1913 Armory Show in New York. Later Davis also used the solid forms of signage and advertising to evoke the tempo of jazz and urban street life, as in this drawing. Made as a commission for Fortune magazine in 1956, Package Deal is a series of works in which Davis reinterpreted the traditional theme of still life.

Catalogue

Year: 1956
Medium: Gouache with graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions: 41.1 × 33.1 cm (16 3/16 × 13 1/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Stuart Davis

Artist

Stuart Davis

Painting

Edward Stuart Davis was an American modernist painter. He was associated with early twentieth-century American modernism, including the Ashcan School, and later developed a style characterized by bold color, jazz references, and urban subject matter. In the 1930s, Davis became politically active and participated in federally sponsored art programs during the Great Depression.

Philadelphia, PA, USA

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