About the Object
Brown Still Life illustrates a clear progression from earlier compositions in the series of 1920s still lifes. Davis successfully incorporated the table legs (as seen from two distinct angles) and effectively conveyed the effect of the pieces of cloth hanging off the edge of the table. The line is beginning to crystalize, but Brown Still Life is still painterly and organic. There is also a buildup of objects as Davis layered the elements on the table and the back wall, which complicates the scene visually. Although the palette is predominately brown, it is not a single wash of color as in Blue Still Life, but rather planes of color (black, gray, and tan) and pattern (long diagonal hatch marks and shorter horizontal marks), which impart a sense of depth to the scene that does not occur in Blue Still Life.
Additional Information
Five related works in the Vilcek Collection are part of a larger series of twelve still lifes created by Davis in 1922. Still Life with Book, Compote and Glass (VF2023.03.01), Still Life with Vase (2004.02.01), Still Life with Dial (2003.02.01), Red Still Life (2005.06.01), and Blue Still Life (2015.03.01).
The Artist;
Estate of the Artist;
[Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, NY];
[Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM];
New York, NY. Whitney Studio Club. Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Stuart Davis. December 8-22, 1926, no. 25, 26, 27 or 28 as Still Life no. 1, 2, 3, or 4.
New York, NY. Grace Borgenicht Gallery. Stuart Davis: Still Life Paintings, 1922/24. September 27-October 23, 1980.
New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Stuart Davis: The Breakthrough Years, 1922-1924. November 4-December 26, 1987, no. 12 as Still Life (Brown).
New York, NY. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Stuart Davis, American Painter (November 23, 1991-February 16, 1992); San Francisco, CA. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (March 26-June 7, 1992); pp. 160, 163, 164,165, ill. p. 162 no. 46 as Still Life (Brown).
Charleston, WV. Sunrise Museum [now The Clay Center’s Avampato Discovery Museum]. Cross Currents: Stuart Davis and His Contemporaries. January 12-March 12, 1995 (checklist), as Still Life (Brown).
Koriyama, Japan. Koriyama City Museum of Art. Stuart Davis Retrospective (July 8-August 6, 1995); Shiga, Japan. Shiga Museum of Modern Art (August 12-October 1, 1995); Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (October 10-November 26, 1995); p. 85, color ill. p. 87 no. 45 as Still Life (Brown).
New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Gallery Selections. December 2, 2003-January 3, 2004 (checklist) as Still Life (Brown).
Santa Fe, NM. Gerald Peters Gallery. Objects of Desire: Modern American Still Life Painting. June 28-July 24, 2004.
Tulsa, OK. Philbrook Museum of Art. From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism from the Vilcek Foundation Collection (February 8-May 3, 2015); Phoenix, AZ. Phoenix Art Museum (June 5-September 6, 2015); Santa Fe, NM. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (September 25, 2015-January 10, 2016).
Photograph and Documentation related to the compiling of records by the American Art Research Council, December 1945. Whitney Museum Papers. Artists Files: Stuart Davis. Reel N652, Frame 51. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Downtown Gallery Records, Artist Notebooks: Davis, Stuart undated, 1910-1970. Box 34, Reel 5568, Frames 442-443. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Lane, John R. Stuart Davis: Art and Art Theory. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1978, p. 99.
Kramer, Hilton. “An American Cubist (exhibition review),” Art & Antiques (January 1988), p. 94.
Salander O’Reilly Advertisement, ARTnews 89, (March 1990), 20.
Reproduced on Salander O’Reilly card announcing Stuart Davis: Scapes, March 2-31, 1991; The Stuart Davis Catalogue Raisonné; The Stuart Davis Centennial and the Metropolitan exhibition, 1991-1992.
Rylands, Philip, ed. Stuart Davis. New York: Bullfinch Press (Little, Brown) and the Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1997, p. 104.
Boyajian, Ani and Mark Rutkoski eds. Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 63-64; vol. 3, pp. 113-114, ill. p. 113, cat. no. 1462.
Agee, William C. and Lewis Kachur. Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection. London: Merrell, 2013, pp. 11, 17-18, 182, 186, 238, 263, ill. p. 186.
Pochoda, Elizabeth. “Freedom and the abstract truth: Jan and Marica Vilcek’s collection of American modernist art,” The Magazine Antiques (May/June 2013), ill. p. 94.
O’Hern, John. “Modern Manor,” American Fine Art Magazine, September/October 2013, p. 60, ill. pp. 59, 60.
Watts Jr., James D. “Modern masterworks: Philbrook exhibit brings American masters to Tulsa,” Tulsa World, February 12, 2015.
