About the Object
Still Life with Dial further explores the influence of Cubism on Davis. Here, he takes the ashy, shadowy palette of Still Life with Book, Compote and Glass, but expands upon it by including elements of vivid color—something he would become known for later in his career. As part of the series of still lifes throughout the ’20s, this painting acts as a continuation of his study and development of his artistic style. Here he focuses on everyday objects, representing them in more rudimentary shapes and colors rather than literally or naturalistically.
Additional Information
Of Davis’s 1922 still lifes, Still Life with Dial and Table with Pipe (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, are the most pared down compositions. The scene has been distilled to its essence. 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), Red Still Life (2005.06.01), Brown Still Life (2005.06.02), and Blue Still Life (2015.03.01).
The Artist;
Estate of the Artist;
[Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, NY];
Private Collection, 2000;
[Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, NY];
Halsey Minor, California;
[Christie’s, New York, NY. December 5, 2002, lot 203];
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.
Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn Museum. Stuart Davis: Art and Art Theory (January 21-March 19,1978); Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fogg Art Museum (April 15-May 28, 1978); pp. 98-99, 204, ill. p. 98, cat. no. 9.
New York, NY. Grace Borgenicht Gallery. Stuart Davis: Still Life Paintings 1922/24. September 27-October 23, 1980, ill. cover.
Manitowoc, WI. Rahr-West Museum. Stuart Davis: The Formative Years, 1910-1930 (March 31-May 8, 1983); Chicago, IL. Terra Museum of American Art (May 14-June 17, 1983); St. Paul, MN. Minnesota Museum of Art. (July 3-September 25, 1983); ill. np., cat. no. 17.
New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. Stuart Davis: The Breakthrough Years. November 4-December 26, 1987, ill. pl. 11, cat. no. 13.
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. 46, 160-163, 177, ill. p. 161, pl. 44, cat. no. 45.
Vienna, Austria. Galerie Ulysses. Stuart Davis (October 19-November 7, 1992); New York. Ulysses Gallery (November 18-30, 1992); ill. np.
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, ill. p. 85, cat. no. 43.
Venice, Italy. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Stuart Davis (June 7-October 5, 1997); Rome, Italy. 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. 102-103, ill. p. 103, pl. 15.
New York, NY. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. A Gallery’s Perspective: Modernist Painting and Sculpture: The Past 25 Years at Salander-O’Reilly. November 4, December 4, 2000, ill. np., cat. no. 2.
Huntington, NY. The Heckscher Museum of Art. Aaron Copeland’s America: A Cultural Perspective. November 4, 2000-January 21, 2001, p. 16, ill. p. 17.
New York, NY. Whitney Museum of American Art. Picasso and American Art (September 28, 2007-January 28. 2007); San Francisco, CA. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (February 25-May 28. 2007); Minneapolis, MN. Walker Art Center (June 16-September 9, 2007); pp. 77, 81, 384, ill. p. 81, pl. 34.
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, Frames 54-55, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Downtown Gallery Records, Artist Notebooks: Davis, Stuart undated, 1910-1970. Box 34, Reel 5568, Frame 439. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Borgenicht Gallery advertisement. Arts Magazine 53, (June 1979), ill. p. 46.
Borgenicht Gallery advertisement. Artforum 9 {i.e. 19} (September 1980), ill. p. 126.
Kramer, Hilton. “Art: Stuart Davis In His Pivotal Period,” New York Times, October 10, 1980, C24.
Kachur, Lewis. Stuart Davis,” Arts 55 (November 1980), p. 2.
Smith, Roberta. “Art: The Apprenticeship of Stuart Davis as a Cubist,” New York Times, November 27, 1987, C26, ill.
Wilkin, Karen. Stuart Davis. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987, pp. 78-79, 83, ill., p. 78, pl. 77.
Kramer, Hilton. “An American Cubist,” Arts and Antiques (January 1988), p. 94.
Wilkin, Karen. “Stuart Davis in his own time,” The New Criterion 6, no. 5 (January 1988), pp. 51-52 as Still Life with “The Dial.”
Kramer, Hilton. “Met Visits 20th Century; Does Modernism Justice,” New York Observer, December 2, 1991, pp. 1, 25.
Berman, Avis. “Art: American Cubist painting” Architectural Digest 52 (December 1995), ill. p. 137.
Hills, Patricia. Stuart Davis. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996, pp. 54-55, 57, ill. p, 54, pl. 39.
Russell, John. “Art Review; Fanfare for Copland, A Fervent Adventurer,” New York Times, December 22, 2000.
Kelder, Diane. Stuart Davis: Art and Theory, 1920-31. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 2002, p. 5, ill. p. 5, fig. 6.
Private Collection. Christie’s, New York. Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. December 5, 2002, pp. 292-293, ill. p. 293, lot 203.
Weber, Bruce. Toward a New American Cubism. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 2006, pp. 12-13, ill. p. 12, fig. 1.
Boyajian, Ani and Mark Rutkoski eds. Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 63-65, 67, 131; vol. 3, pp. 110-111, ill. p. 111, cat. no. 1460.
Galligan, Gregory. “The Cube in the Kaleidoscope: The American Reception of French Cubism, 1918-1938,” (PhD dissertation, New York University, 2007), pp. xxvi, 300, ill. pl. 100.
Christ, J.X. “Stuart Davis and the Politics of Experience,” American Art 22, no. 2 (Summer 2008), p. 48, ill. p. 49, fig. 4.
Agee, William C. and Lewis Kachur. Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection. London: Merrell, 2013, pp. 11, 17-18, 182-183, 238, 263, ill. pp. 183, 184-185.
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. 96.
O’Hern, John. “Modern Manor,” American Fine Art Magazine, September/October 2013, p.60, ill. pp. 14, 55, 61, 62.
Watts Jr., James D. “Modern masterworks: Philbrook exhibit brings American masters to Tulsa,” Tulsa World, February 12, 2015.
Agee, William C. Modern Art in America: 1908-68. London: Phaidon, 2016, p. 138, ill. p. 139.
Cooper, Harry and Barbara Haskell. Stuart Davis: In Full Swing. New York: Prestel, 2016, ill. p. 161.
