Career
Exposed at this exhibition to the work of such artists as Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, Davis became a committed "modern" artist and a major exponent of cubism and modernism in America. He spent summers painting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and made painting trips to Havana in 1918 and New Mexico in 1923.
In the 1920s he developed his mature style of Hard-edge paintings, mainly abstract still lifes and landscapes; his use of contemporary subject matter such as cigarette packages, spark plug advertisements and the contemporary American landscape make him a proto-Pop artist.
In 1928, he visited Paris, where he painted street scenes. In the 1930s, he became increasingly politically engaged; according to Cécile Whiting, Davis' goal was to "reconcile abstract art with Marxism and modern industrial society". In 1934 he joined the Artists' Union; he was later elected its President. In 1936 the American Artists' Congress elected him National Secretary. He painted murals for Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration which are influenced by his love of jazz.
He was represented by Edith Gregor Halpert at the Downtown Gallery in New York City.
Davis died of a stroke in New York on June 24, 1964, aged 71.
Read more about this topic: Stuart Davis (painter)
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