About the Object
In the evolution of his still lifes in the 1920, Davis took another step forward in this composition. The elements on the table have been distilled; the visual buildup of objects and planes that complicated Brown Still Life has been eliminated. The entire surface of the table is visible, all of the edges are defined. Davis removed the blue cloth from the tabletop—it is also absent from Still Life with Dial, reinforcing the idea that these two were the last of the four large works Davis painted.
Additional Information
Five related works in the Vilcek Collection are part of a larger series of 12 still lifes created by Davis in 1922. Still Life with Book, Compote and Glass (VF2023.03.01), Still Life with Vase (2004.02.01), Brown Still Life (2005.06.02), Still Life with Dial (2003.02.01), 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, cat. no. 25, 26, 27 or 28, as Still Life no. 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Iowa City, IA. The New Gallery, Department of Art, University of Iowa. Vintage Moderns: Americans Pioneer Artists, 1903-1932, plus 4 related photographers. May 24-August 2, 1962, p. 10, cat. no. 7.
Waltham, MA. Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. American Modernism: The First Wave: Painting from 1903 to 1933. A loan Exhibition of the Poses Institute of Fine Arts, Brandeis University. October 4-November 10, 1963, np., cat. no. 3.
Chapel Hill, NC. The Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina. Fifty Years of American Art, 1903-1953. February 11-March 10, 1968.
New York, NY. Grace Borgenicht Gallery. Stuart Davis: Still Life Paintings, 1922/24. September 27-October 23, 1980, ill. on cover of catalogue.
New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Stuart Davis: The Breakthrough Years, 1922-1924. November 4-December 26, 1987, ill. np., cat. no. 10.
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, 162-163, ill. p. 162, cat. no. 45.
Vienna, Austria. Galerie Ulysses. Stuart Davis (October 19-November 7, 1992); New York. Ulysses Gallery (November 18-30, 1992); ill. np.
New York, NY. Associated American Artists. Modern Masters. Modern Masters: Paintings and Works on Paper. September 9-October 16, 1993, ill. np., cat. no. 20.
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); pp. 85, 86, 163, 165, ill. p. 86, cat. no. 44 (not exhibited in Koriyama).
Venice, Italy. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Stuart Davis (June 7-October 5, 1997); Rome. Palazzo delle Esposizioni (October 22, 1997-January 12, 1998); Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Stedelijk Museum (February 1-April 19, 1998); Washington, D.C. National Museum of American Art (May 22-September 7, 1998); pp. 104-105, ill. p. 105, cat. no. 16.
Roslyn Harbor, NY. Nassau County Museum of Art. Reflections of Opulence: Art Nouveau to Art Deco. May 13-August 5, 2001, pp. 45, 75, ill. p. 45.
New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Twentieth Century Selections. November 1-24, 2001. New York. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Gallery Selections. December 2, 2003-January 3, 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).
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. Stuart Davis: In Full Swing. November 20, 2016-March 5, 2017, pp. 37-38, 241, ill. p. 37, fig. 10.
Davis, Stuart. Stuart Davis (autobiography). New York: American Artists Group, 1945, ill. np.
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 50. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Downtown Gallery Records, Artist Notebooks: Davis, Stuart undated, 1910-1970. Box 34, Reel 5568, Frames 440-441. 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.
Wilkin, Karen and Lewis Kachur. The Drawings of Stuart Davis: The Amazing Continuity. New York: The American Federation of the Arts in association with Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1993, pp. 17-18, ill. p. 18, fig. 5.
Wilson, William R. Stuart Davis’s Abstract Argot. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1993, p. ix, ill. pl. 5.
Boyajian, Ani and Mark Rutkoski eds. Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, vol. 1, p. 63-64; vol. 3, p. 112, ill. p. 112, cat. no. 1461.
Agee, William C. and Lewis Kachur. Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection. London: Merrell, 2013, pp. 11, 17-18, 182, 187, 238, 263, ill. p. 187.
O’Hern, John. “Modern Manor,” American Fine Art Magazine, September/October 2013, p. 60, ill. p. 61.
Watts Jr., James D. “Modern masterworks: Philbrook exhibit brings American masters to Tulsa,” Tulsa World, February 12, 2015.
