About the Object
This New York City street scene, set underneath elevated train tracks, is an example of a dual composition by Davis. In this work, Davis employed a literal division in the form of an elevated train support that splits the composition almost in half. This divide is emphasized by color choices in the scenes on each side of the support. The scene behind the support appears to be a single view—the line of the sidewalk appears to connect to the street corner, with steps up to the train, but if we look more closely we cannot see the beginning of the restaurant sign, suggesting it is perhaps two different scenes.
Additional Information
Davis further refined this idea in House and Street, 1931, in the Whitney Museum of American Art, using a black background to completely separate the two street scenes, as if they were film stills.
The Artist;
[Downtown Gallery, January 16, 1931];
Lucia McCurdy McBride (Mrs. M. L. McBride), Cleveland, OH, April 18, 1931;
By descent in the family;
[Wolf’s Fine Art Auctioneers, Cleveland, April 18, 1997, lot 30];
[Martha Parrish & James Reinish Inc., New York, NY];
Private Collection, California, 1997-2014;
[James Reinish Inc., New York, NY];
New York. The Downtown Gallery. Stuart Davis: Recent Painting in Oil and Watercolor, March 31-April 19, 1931.
Corpus Christi. The Art Museum of South Texas. Masterpieces of American Modernism from the Vilcek Collection of American Art. September 13, 2018-January 6, 2019.
Tulsa. Philbrook Museum of Art. Making Modern America. February 10-May 26, 2019.
Sales Slip, April 18, 1931. Downtown Gallery Records. Sales Records, Artwork: Sales Slips (1 0f 2), 1931. Box 70, Reel 5621, Frame 847. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.
Stuart Davis Statement of Account from Oct. 1, 1930 to Oct. 1, 1932. Downtown Gallery Records. Gallery Stock: Miscellaneous Stock Records, Davis, Stuart. Box 64, Reel 5609, Frame 480-481. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.
Davis, Stuart. “Self-Interview.” Creative Art 9, no. 3 (September 1931), p. 210.
Private Collection. Wolf’s, Cleveland. Fine and Decorative Arts at Auction. April 18, 1997, lot 30.
Boyajian, Ani and Mark Rutkoski eds. Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, vol. 2, p. 579, ill. p. 579, cat. no. 1152.
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