Interior
Artist
Stuart Davis
American, 1894–1964
Date1930
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Saundra B. Lane in memory of her husband, William H. Lane, and purchase through the Stoddard Acquisition Fund
Object number1996.60
Label TextThe 1913 Armory Show, a watershed exhibition in New York City featuring avant-garde European art,
inspired Davis to reject his early realist style and
experiment with abstraction. By the early 1920s,
Davis was painting landscapes, still lifes, and urban
scenes using bold squi les, hard-edged forms, and
flat expanses of color to define spatial
relationships. Yet his works remained based on
observed reality. Recognizable motifs in Interior
include the parts of a chair back at lower right and,
in the background, an easel supporting an
unfinished painting of a cityscape. As Davis
described his artistic vision,
One must learn to see the space not simply
the boundaries of objects. One must see the
“shapes” of the space not the shapes of the
objects that occur in it.
On View
On viewCurrent Location
- Exhibition Location Gallery 4001
