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Home > Art > Letter and His Ecol (Black and White Version)

Letter and His Ecol (Black and White Version)

Artist

Stuart Davis

Date

1962-64

Medium

Casein on canvas

Object Type

Painting

Dimensions

H- 24 x W- 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm)

Artist's Country of Birth

United States

Collecting Area

American Modernism

Credit Line

The Vilcek Foundation

Accession Number

VF2008.13.01

Copyright

© Estate of Stuart Davis/VAGA, New York

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About the Object

In this painting, Davis continued exploring the power of black and white, as seen in Drugstore Reflection, c. 1932, and Untitled (Black and White Variation on Windshield Mirror), c. 1954-64, moving from the complexity of multiple views to an emphasis on clarity. Contained by a border around the edge of the canvas, the painting’s shapes are compartmentalized and mostly unidentifiable, save for the word “ANY” painted sideways on the lower left of the composition.

 

Additional Information

As the title suggests another version of the painting exists. Letter and His Ecol, 1962, in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, shares the same composition, but features green, yellow, and red in addition to black and white.

The Artist;
Estate of the Artist;
[Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, IL];
[Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, NY];
[Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM];
The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, 2006-2008;

New York, NY. Salander O’Reilly Galleries. Stuart Davis: Black and White. November 6-December 28, 1985, cat. no. 57 (supplementary checklist).

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. 307, 308, ill p. 307, cat. no. 169.

New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Stuart Davis: Black and White Paintings & Drawings. February 3-27, 1999.

Lexington, KY. Art Museum At The University Of Kentucky. Mid Century Modernism From The Huntington Museum Of Art. December 4, 2010-March 26, 2011.

St. Louis, MO. Kemper Museum Of Contemporary Art. Fall 2011-April 2012.

St. Peter, MN. The Hillstrom Museum of Art. Stuart Davis in Black & White. September 12-November 6, 2022.

Wilkin, Karen. Stuart Davis. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987, ill. p. 212, pl. 218, as Letter and His Ecol, Black and White Version No. 1.

Boyajian, Ani and Mark Rutkoski eds. Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, vol. 3, pp. 462-463, color ill. p. 462, cat. no. 1736, as Letter and His Ecol. (Black and White Version).

Agee, William C. and Lewis Kachur. Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection. London: Merrell, 2013, pp. 19, 216-217,  264, ill. p. 217.

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Related Objects

Untitled (Black and White Variation on Windshield Mirror)

c. 1954-64 Stuart Davis
An abstracted view of an urban street with reflected and mirrored imagery and text.

Study for Radio City Music Hall

1932 Stuart Davis
A drawing on graph paper featuring imagery including a gas pump, pipe, sailboat, barber shop pole, and playing card.

Drugstore Reflection

c. 1932 Stuart Davis
Simplified view of a drugstore window from the inside drawn with simple shapes and lines.

Still Life with Dial

1922 Stuart Davis
A cubist still life featuring a cup and saucer, stack of magazines, and jug on an upturned table top.

Red Still Life

1922 Stuart Davis

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