Stuart Davis: An American in Paris
Sheldon
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06/16/2021
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73
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Description
Art critic and curator Karen Wilkin presented a public talk at Sheldon Museum of Art on the energetic zeitgeist of 1920s Paris and its influence on artist Stuart Davis. "Arch Hotel,” one of Davis’s Paris paintings is part of the museum’s collection, having been acquired by the University of Nebraska in 1947 during the Nebraska Art Association’s 57th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art.
Wilkin is the author of monographs on Stuart Davis, David Smith, and Anthony Caro, among others. She contributed to "Stuart Davis: American Painter" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and "Stuart Davis: a Retrospective" at the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, and the Stedlijk, Amsterdam. A contributing editor of the "Stuart Davis Catalogue Raisonné," she curated the touring exhibitions "The Amazing Continuity: The Drawings of Stuart Davis," "Stuart Davis in Gloucester," and, with William C. Agee and Irving Sandler, "American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning 1927-1942." She contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal, Hudson Review, and The New Criterion, and teaches at the New York Studio School.
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- [00:00:08.389]all right good evening I am NOT Karin
- [00:00:11.330]Wilkin what will get to her in just a
- [00:00:13.099]second I'm Carrie Morgan I'm curator of
- [00:00:15.679]academic programs here at Sheldon and
- [00:00:17.419]I'm happy to see everyone here who's
- [00:00:20.750]come to tonight's collection talk
- [00:00:22.910]program collection talk is a branded
- [00:00:26.210]lecture series that thank you now it's
- [00:00:29.239]working and that Sheldon launched
- [00:00:31.460]several years ago with the aim of
- [00:00:33.010]highlighting the extraordinary
- [00:00:35.660]collection that we have here the on the
- [00:00:38.539]University of Nebraska campus so
- [00:00:41.030]tonight's collection talk focuses on one
- [00:00:44.090]of our great American modernist painters
- [00:00:46.340]Stuart Davis who's represented by
- [00:00:49.400]multiple works in Sheldon's collection
- [00:00:52.090]Davis's art hotel a painting he
- [00:00:55.190]completed in 1929 while he was living in
- [00:00:58.220]Paris is the focus of a current exhibit
- [00:01:00.739]exhibition that is on the first level on
- [00:01:03.890]the north side and I encourage you to
- [00:01:07.040]visit that exhibit if you haven't
- [00:01:08.600]already seen it it will be on view
- [00:01:11.149]through May 5th and I should just
- [00:01:13.850]acknowledge that support for that
- [00:01:16.010]exhibition exhibition and this program
- [00:01:18.080]was provided by Roseanne and Phil Perry
- [00:01:20.659]the Dylan Foundation Nebraska Arts
- [00:01:23.720]Council and the Nebraska cultural
- [00:01:25.490]endowment and the Sheldon Art
- [00:01:27.500]Association so thank you sponsors the
- [00:01:30.799]curatorial premise for that exhibit
- [00:01:32.920]across the way Stuart Davis arch hotel
- [00:01:36.860]is very simple it asks how does a
- [00:01:40.939]painting come to be and what you see in
- [00:01:44.450]the gallery space are sketches which
- [00:01:47.150]we've borrowed from the Amon Carter
- [00:01:49.100]Museum of American Art and a few prints
- [00:01:52.100]which we own here it's part of the
- [00:01:55.009]Sheldon collection so we see sketches
- [00:01:57.950]and prints related to the painting arch
- [00:02:00.500]hotel along with sort of an experimental
- [00:02:03.710]wall sized vinyl diagram that attempts
- [00:02:08.060]to unpack the rich context in which
- [00:02:10.459]Davis was working when he painted Arts
- [00:02:12.769]Hotel so in essence this was a project
- [00:02:15.409]to pull back the curtain just a bit on
- [00:02:19.880]that creative
- [00:02:21.540]process and I hope that we're gonna
- [00:02:23.849]continue pulling that curtain back with
- [00:02:26.939]this evening special guest Karen Wilkin
- [00:02:29.120]who is an independent curator and critic
- [00:02:32.849]specializing in 20th century modernism
- [00:02:35.159]she joins us from New York karen has
- [00:02:39.030]researched and written extensively on
- [00:02:41.730]Stuart Davis she is a contributing
- [00:02:44.310]editor of the Stuart Davis catalogue
- [00:02:47.129]raisonné which came out from Yale 2007
- [00:02:51.049]she has curated the touring exhibitions
- [00:02:54.359]the amazing continuity the drawings of
- [00:02:57.329]Stuart Davis Stuart Davis and Gloucester
- [00:03:00.989]and with her colleagues Willem excuse me
- [00:03:04.919]William Agee and Irving Sandler American
- [00:03:08.129]vanguards Graham Davis Gorky de Kooning
- [00:03:12.680]1927 1942
- [00:03:15.019]she's also contributed to some major
- [00:03:18.019]Stuart Davis exhibitions one at the
- [00:03:21.180]Metropolitan Museum of Art Stuart Davis
- [00:03:23.669]an American painter and another one that
- [00:03:26.549]was over in Europe in Venice and
- [00:03:28.229]Amsterdam Stuart Davis a retrospective
- [00:03:31.909]in addition to her work on Stuart Davis
- [00:03:34.889]Karin has published countless essays
- [00:03:37.109]monographs and curatorial projects on
- [00:03:39.389]many mid-century modernists and
- [00:03:41.639]contemporary abstraction including
- [00:03:44.310]Anthony Caro Helen Frankenthaler Hans
- [00:03:47.129]Hoffman Kenneth Noland David Smith's her
- [00:03:51.659]art criticism is widely respected and
- [00:03:54.329]disseminated she is the contributing
- [00:03:56.819]editor for art at the Hudson review as
- [00:03:59.250]well as a regular contributor to The
- [00:04:01.500]Wall Street Journal and the New
- [00:04:02.729]Criterion and with even with all that
- [00:04:06.269]writing publishing researching she finds
- [00:04:08.609]time to support young artistic artistic
- [00:04:11.639]talent by teaching in the MFA program at
- [00:04:14.760]the New York studio school and she was
- [00:04:17.400]just saying she has a load of theses to
- [00:04:20.400]read when she gets back so we are so
- [00:04:23.610]fortunate to have Karen share her
- [00:04:25.740]expertise on Stuart Davis with us this
- [00:04:27.930]evening so please help me in giving her
- [00:04:29.940]a warm welcome to Nebraska and the
- [00:04:31.830]Sheldon
- [00:04:32.700][Applause]
- [00:04:40.680]thank you and thank you all for coming I
- [00:04:43.930]think this is my fourth trip to the
- [00:04:46.330]Sheldon it's always a treat to be here
- [00:04:48.520]because the collection is so fabulous
- [00:04:51.610]and I no matter how much I think I know
- [00:04:54.940]it I always discover something that's a
- [00:04:57.310]surprise I think hmm I'm gonna borrow
- [00:05:00.370]that for the next show you're you're
- [00:05:05.669]Barnett Newman saved my life at one
- [00:05:08.350]point when I was working on a show which
- [00:05:12.190]had a Barnett Newman at the last minute
- [00:05:14.680]the conservators said sorry inherent
- [00:05:18.220]vice it can't travel and the Sheldon was
- [00:05:21.010]kind enough to lend me their very good
- [00:05:22.900]work so I have very very affectionate
- [00:05:24.970]feelings for the Sheldon I also have
- [00:05:27.850]very very affectionate feelings for our
- [00:05:29.620]CH hotel I'm not going to show you our
- [00:05:33.039]hotel because that it's sitting upstairs
- [00:05:36.669]in all its wonderful physicality and
- [00:05:41.250]specificity which simply does not
- [00:05:43.419]photograph so I hope that you will then
- [00:05:46.330]rush upstairs and see the actual
- [00:05:48.610]painting but I am going to try to set
- [00:05:51.610]our CH hotel in context because it has a
- [00:05:56.349]very interesting context
- [00:05:58.180]I hope I'm pushing the right button here
- [00:06:01.720]yes here is Stuart Davis in 1919 he was
- [00:06:09.330]totally overwhelmed by the 1913 Armory
- [00:06:15.039]Show he was in the 1913 Armory Show he
- [00:06:19.330]was in the juried section of the
- [00:06:22.150]Americans he was he took two years off
- [00:06:26.169]his birth date so that he could be the
- [00:06:28.180]youngest artist in the 1913 Armory Show
- [00:06:33.099]but we found his birth certificate
- [00:06:36.000]nevertheless he was still very young
- [00:06:38.590]having been born in December 1892 he had
- [00:06:45.310]come out of
- [00:06:46.689]Robert Henry's school Robert Henry of
- [00:06:50.539]course wanted the leading ashcan school
- [00:06:52.330]artists and Davis was his star pupil he
- [00:06:58.400]was painting very good ashcan style
- [00:07:01.520]paintings Henry sent his students out to
- [00:07:06.729]paint the life of the times that meant
- [00:07:10.789]going to speakeasies going to saloon
- [00:07:14.270]bars going to the senior parts of New
- [00:07:18.139]Jersey and Davis developed a lifelong
- [00:07:21.759]affection for jazz and alcohol at 16 as
- [00:07:26.500]Henry student what he developed a
- [00:07:30.560]lifelong aspiration towards in the 1913
- [00:07:33.770]Armory Show was to be a capital M modern
- [00:07:38.240]capital a artist and he then spent the
- [00:07:42.949]next 10 years in a kind of self-imposed
- [00:07:45.770]and Prentiss ship two artists that he
- [00:07:48.439]saw in that show obviously he saw thank
- [00:07:52.099]God in that show and this is a very fan
- [00:07:55.699]golfy and self portrait he also was
- [00:07:59.029]painting the cornfields of Tioga
- [00:08:01.159]Pennsylvania's though they were the
- [00:08:03.050]wheat fields of Provence he decided to
- [00:08:08.089]go toe-to-toe with Matisse now this is
- [00:08:12.289]extremely misleading because the Davis
- [00:08:15.080]is about this big and you all know how
- [00:08:17.839]big red studio is but it's in he's
- [00:08:21.409]decided to not only go toe-to-toe with
- [00:08:23.569]matys but to take on two paintings at
- [00:08:25.789]once so not only is he is his ochre
- [00:08:29.839]studio an equivalent of red studio with
- [00:08:33.560]this nice personalization instead of the
- [00:08:36.800]clock with the disk of the hands on top
- [00:08:39.500]he's got his record player with the disk
- [00:08:42.110]of the record player on bottom out the
- [00:08:44.690]window you have a blue landscape which
- [00:08:47.000]is like the blue window painting these
- [00:08:49.579]were these were all fabulous enormous
- [00:08:51.949]Matisse's in the armour show and this
- [00:08:54.680]idea of cataloging one's own belongings
- [00:08:57.260]one's own studio was something that was
- [00:08:59.240]obviously very a
- [00:09:00.380]to the young artist his wicker chair
- [00:09:03.260]isn't equivalent to Matisse's white
- [00:09:05.300]wicker chair but he's inverting he's
- [00:09:09.110]changing he's making it personal it's as
- [00:09:12.320]though he's apprentice in himself to
- [00:09:14.000]Mattie's to learn how Matisse doesn't he
- [00:09:18.110]was trying on cubism for a while he used
- [00:09:22.160]to spend summers in Gloucester
- [00:09:25.280]Massachusetts where he spent almost all
- [00:09:27.950]of his summers there and their paintings
- [00:09:31.700]of Gloucester in witches though he's
- [00:09:33.800]looking for cubans cubism in the
- [00:09:36.380]landscape he paints the graveyard where
- [00:09:39.500]the planes of the tombstones are painted
- [00:09:43.310]as though they were cubist planes but
- [00:09:45.260]they don't do anything to the space and
- [00:09:46.850]then he suddenly gets it and he does a
- [00:09:49.370]series of very accomplished landscapes
- [00:09:52.840]which are not like European cubist
- [00:09:57.110]landscapes despite their understanding
- [00:09:59.210]of the space their horizontal they feel
- [00:10:01.970]they're very much about Maine they would
- [00:10:04.730]probably look or very much about New
- [00:10:07.280]England they're about Gloucester which
- [00:10:09.590]is up the coast and they are they
- [00:10:12.230]probably look just fine in the wonderful
- [00:10:14.350]in the little adjacent room to the
- [00:10:16.910]wonderful John Walker show he's very
- [00:10:20.180]much about the American coast but he has
- [00:10:23.660]understood what this European spatial
- [00:10:27.290]language is about painting of tabletop
- [00:10:30.770]still loves as well and in 1927 and 28
- [00:10:36.610]he starts a series that he calls egg
- [00:10:39.890]beaters as he described it he nailed a
- [00:10:43.610]rubber glove an electric fan and an egg
- [00:10:47.600]beater to a table and he drew and
- [00:10:50.900]painted them until he forgot what the
- [00:10:52.550]subject matter was there are four of
- [00:10:55.460]them and they are all the same size you
- [00:11:00.080]could start recognizing elements in them
- [00:11:02.390]but they're completely transformed and
- [00:11:05.500]made into very original
- [00:11:09.110]very accomplished paintings that was
- [00:11:11.089]nineteen twenty eight twenty
- [00:11:12.889]seven in America that's extremely
- [00:11:16.339]impressive Picasso and Braque and Greece
- [00:11:21.889]are painting synthetic cubist paintings
- [00:11:26.079]like these with large contain shapes
- [00:11:29.949]Davis knows what's going on in Europe
- [00:11:32.449]and in fact he gets to go to York
- [00:11:34.839]because he exhibited a group of works at
- [00:11:38.600]the Whitney Studio Club the ancestor of
- [00:11:41.389]the Whitney Studio Museum Gertrude
- [00:11:44.089]Vanderbilt Whitney bought a couple of
- [00:11:46.309]paintings and on the proceeds as Davis
- [00:11:49.579]said I having heard that Paris was a
- [00:11:52.040]good place to go I went to Paris taking
- [00:11:55.970]with him two of his eggbeater paintings
- [00:11:57.709]to show people what he was doing but
- [00:12:01.129]when he got to Paris something really
- [00:12:03.169]remarkable happened he was his he said
- [00:12:08.480]oh and I realize I haven't brought this
- [00:12:10.790]up here
- [00:12:21.620]I can paraphrase Davis but I don't want
- [00:12:24.800]to misquote him he said over there the
- [00:12:27.800]actuality was so interesting I found a
- [00:12:30.560]desire to paint it just as it was now
- [00:12:34.730]that is so different from what you just
- [00:12:37.610]saw what he was doing in New York but he
- [00:12:43.400]was completely seduced by everything
- [00:12:46.970]that was unlike New York and he filled
- [00:12:51.880]notebooks with drawings odd as you see
- [00:12:55.520]here the hotel lobby a cafe the details
- [00:13:00.500]of everything French everything Parisian
- [00:13:05.960]everything unamerican enthralled him the
- [00:13:10.089]lettering on hotels now obviously
- [00:13:13.190]lettering was something that the
- [00:13:15.710]Cubist's were using it was something
- [00:13:17.660]that Davis was interested in in the very
- [00:13:21.200]good wall text illustrated wall text in
- [00:13:26.360]the gallery with arch Hotel there's a
- [00:13:29.360]reproduction of a wonderful group of
- [00:13:32.600]paintings that we call tobacco still
- [00:13:36.440]laws which are about the labels of
- [00:13:40.570]cigarettes and rolling papers and pouch
- [00:13:44.150]tobacco they look like collages and
- [00:13:46.400]reproduction but they're much bigger
- [00:13:48.200]than a collage could be they're all
- [00:13:50.450]painted and he was very very interested
- [00:13:53.060]in this commercial labeling in fact he
- [00:13:55.160]one point he said that the advent of
- [00:13:57.430]packaging as opposed to things coming in
- [00:14:00.350]barrels or sacks was one of the great
- [00:14:03.370]advances of civilization but here in
- [00:14:08.150]Paris everything is interesting to him
- [00:14:10.870]he is seeing these kiosks with
- [00:14:16.600]advertising of a kind he's never seen
- [00:14:19.100]he's interested in the windows he's
- [00:14:21.500]interested in the railings he's
- [00:14:23.270]interested in the age of the houses he
- [00:14:26.690]writes back home how interesting the
- [00:14:30.290]architecture is he also is very attached
- [00:14:33.890]to the idea
- [00:14:35.510]that you have a culture in which sitting
- [00:14:38.750]around in public places for long periods
- [00:14:41.630]of time is very much accepted and that
- [00:14:44.450]you can you know buy a what he says a
- [00:14:47.150]six cent cafe come and sit in the cafe
- [00:14:51.410]all day he thinks this is a very very
- [00:14:53.570]good thing
- [00:14:56.320]siphon bottles Turkish toilet it's all
- [00:15:01.520]in there it's not anything he knew in
- [00:15:05.540]America and he's determined to make it
- [00:15:08.690]part of his vocabulary so it because
- [00:15:14.630]objects become in this landscape this
- [00:15:18.380]urban landscape become the pieces that
- [00:15:25.580]he puts together for his paintings these
- [00:15:29.750]this is a kind of composite from the
- [00:15:32.060]kind of drawings that I've been showing
- [00:15:33.830]you but he's all he's drawing the urban
- [00:15:37.280]landscape in situ probably from a
- [00:15:41.620]comfortable table in a cafe and I
- [00:15:45.410]suspect it wasn't just coffee that he
- [00:15:47.300]was drinking all day
- [00:15:49.090]he loves the lettering he uses French
- [00:15:54.140]words that he understands his French was
- [00:15:56.540]virtually non-existent but he could you
- [00:16:01.040]know things like tobacco he could
- [00:16:02.660]recognize Bell house was okay hotel he
- [00:16:06.050]could read and all of these things
- [00:16:08.690]become part of these characters in a
- [00:16:13.690]kind of stage set he uses this kind of
- [00:16:18.740]space throughout his life it's a very
- [00:16:22.390]recognizable urban space but it is
- [00:16:27.100]somehow contained and it does feel like
- [00:16:30.950]a stage set the actors being in these
- [00:16:35.080]the second bottle of the Kerith the beer
- [00:16:39.830]mug there are American paintings in
- [00:16:42.350]which the characters are gasoline pumps
- [00:16:45.880]he was not a good figure painter
- [00:16:48.800]and he was smart enough to early on when
- [00:16:51.230]he was working with Henry and he was
- [00:16:53.300]doing these ashcan school
- [00:16:56.019]post-impressionist kind of paintings so
- [00:16:57.800]the figures are fine but he never really
- [00:16:59.989]figured out a way of doing modern
- [00:17:01.309]figures and he was smart enough to
- [00:17:02.959]realize that these characters these
- [00:17:06.169]surrogate people could be much more
- [00:17:09.079]expressive and be much more
- [00:17:10.850]interestingly presented than anything to
- [00:17:13.699]do with a human being he was constantly
- [00:17:18.020]on the alert for surprises and we have
- [00:17:23.350]this very detailed copy which he
- [00:17:26.839]identifies as a child's drawing on the
- [00:17:32.750]Festa Posada who did eyes and was called
- [00:17:38.270]that it wasn't the real name of the
- [00:17:40.070]street it was called out because it was
- [00:17:41.779]in such an insular Burress part of
- [00:17:43.669]Palace and that stylized kind of cubist
- [00:17:48.529]head turns up in one of his strongest
- [00:17:53.120]paintings which you get even in this
- [00:17:58.279]reproduction a sense of the physicality
- [00:18:01.700]of the surface and that's something
- [00:18:04.070]which is really really striking in arch
- [00:18:08.419]Hotel the crust units of the surface the
- [00:18:12.580]passages where he has scratched into the
- [00:18:16.549]paint where he has shaved made the
- [00:18:20.559]modulation of the surface as important
- [00:18:23.330]as the changes in color well where is
- [00:18:26.480]that coming from well he's really
- [00:18:28.760]getting it from Josh Bloch Barak at this
- [00:18:32.210]time who of course work was visible in
- [00:18:36.620]Paris
- [00:18:37.880]Davis certainly was seeing it just as he
- [00:18:41.450]was seeing Picasso's work black was
- [00:18:44.510]stirring sand into his paint there's a
- [00:18:48.860]very charming story about some paint
- [00:18:51.919]dealer very very high quality paint
- [00:18:54.020]going to see block and extolling his
- [00:18:58.250]wares and saying that this paint was
- [00:19:01.250]grind
- [00:19:02.119]ground so finally it was the most
- [00:19:04.519]perfect texture of any paint
- [00:19:07.869]manufactured and black said well it
- [00:19:11.029]doesn't matter I'm going to put sand in
- [00:19:12.679]it anyway I don't know if he ended up
- [00:19:15.109]buying the paint so this was something
- [00:19:17.449]that French painters were exploring at
- [00:19:21.019]the time this kind of change in texture
- [00:19:24.469]but Davis uses it in a very personal way
- [00:19:27.859]he is using it as I say the way he uses
- [00:19:30.499]color to differentiate planes and he is
- [00:19:36.309]using color in a way that is very very
- [00:19:41.289]important in these paintings when you
- [00:19:44.809]look at the drawings as we just did such
- [00:19:49.279]as the one on the left
- [00:19:50.659]it looks pretty conventional
- [00:19:54.579]they've been described with your picture
- [00:19:57.199]postcard views of Paris
- [00:19:59.859]Brian o Doherty described them as stage
- [00:20:04.129]sets for a musical comedy about Paris
- [00:20:07.279]and they are not as formally inventive
- [00:20:13.759]as we would expect from the person who
- [00:20:17.149]painted that series of egg beaters but
- [00:20:21.079]look what happens when you see it in
- [00:20:22.669]color everything changes Davis believed
- [00:20:28.189]that a drawing which he called a
- [00:20:30.469]configuration was the origin of
- [00:20:34.789]everything a good configuration
- [00:20:38.109]encapsulated the artists entire
- [00:20:40.519]experience of an event or a place and
- [00:20:43.399]that included sound smell as well as
- [00:20:49.039]what you could see a configuration was
- [00:20:53.119]only made of lines at one point he says
- [00:20:58.609]that signs of change or hesitation have
- [00:21:03.799]to be removed so that you just have this
- [00:21:06.199]one sure outline even an even if sketch
- [00:21:09.679]done on the spot because he said when
- [00:21:12.859]you have another
- [00:21:15.590]event that sets up its own relationship
- [00:21:19.159]and becomes part of the whole
- [00:21:20.270]composition so it can only be the line
- [00:21:23.059]that you mean a good configuration was
- [00:21:26.929]not exhausted by a single use because it
- [00:21:31.010]could be endlessly spatially varied by
- [00:21:33.350]color and we'll see that later on that
- [00:21:37.700]he returns to the same image over and
- [00:21:40.730]over again most of the things that Davis
- [00:21:46.370]writes on his canvases even later on
- [00:21:49.940]when he invents words like ideas with a
- [00:21:55.340]why to stand for ideas or puts in little
- [00:22:00.380]code words like any meaning any subject
- [00:22:04.130]can do you you can read them you know
- [00:22:07.279]what they mean but just about all the
- [00:22:10.220]Paris paintings have these very
- [00:22:11.960]enigmatic numbers on what looks like a
- [00:22:14.899]musical staff except it doesn't have the
- [00:22:17.000]right number of lines for musical staff
- [00:22:19.130]and some of them have repeated numbers I
- [00:22:23.390]believe our total also has 7 12 mm-hmm
- [00:22:27.890]no it's a no it's another you know it's
- [00:22:30.140]not 7 12 but it's a 7 something and if
- [00:22:33.500]anyone has any idea what that means
- [00:22:35.870]please let us know
- [00:22:38.169]we've never figured it out at one point
- [00:22:41.330]I thought well maybe it's the address of
- [00:22:43.190]his studio no that was 50 who died Sasha
- [00:22:46.700]at Ikes so nothing works but they're in
- [00:22:50.090]everything and they're not the number of
- [00:22:53.000]the paintings it's not he didn't have a
- [00:22:54.500]code system like that clearly he's aware
- [00:22:59.539]of what his peers are doing his friend
- [00:23:04.190]Elliot Paul the writer whom he knew from
- [00:23:07.159]Gloucester mass author of some
- [00:23:09.710]incredibly entertaining thrillers set in
- [00:23:14.240]Paris in the 20s I highly recommend
- [00:23:16.909]hugger-mugger in the Louvre if you can
- [00:23:19.100]get a hold of it he was also the editor
- [00:23:23.960]and publisher of a very very vanguard
- [00:23:26.659]publication called transition
- [00:23:29.270]- which Gertrude Stein contributed and
- [00:23:32.730]on the masthead of the magazine it says
- [00:23:35.280]and Gertrude Stein sends us what she
- [00:23:37.920]wishes when she wishes and she is
- [00:23:40.020]pleased and we are pleased there was an
- [00:23:44.310]issue devoted to Davis Eliot Paul
- [00:23:48.530]offered to introduce or to bring Davis
- [00:23:54.330]to Picasso's studio that apparently
- [00:23:56.850]never materialized
- [00:23:58.170]but he did arrange for a visit to
- [00:24:01.800]Gertrude Stein's collection Gertrude
- [00:24:03.750]Stein came to see Davis's studio in
- [00:24:06.090]Paris and he hoped very much that she
- [00:24:09.390]would buy a painting but she didn't he
- [00:24:14.160]exchanged studio visits with Donald AJ
- [00:24:17.720]he never met buck but he certainly as
- [00:24:21.690]you can see from a painting like this
- [00:24:23.430]was fully aware of what talk was doing
- [00:24:27.480]with colour with texture with pattern
- [00:24:30.750]but Davis isn't doing the same thing he
- [00:24:34.230]may be aware he may be emulating certain
- [00:24:38.160]aspects of it but his work remains very
- [00:24:40.530]individual and very personal he is
- [00:24:45.810]constantly drawing he is going around
- [00:24:51.000]Paris with his notebook he is responding
- [00:24:55.050]to factory entrances to really quite
- [00:25:00.420]undistinguished street corners simply
- [00:25:04.200]because of the geometry it's all
- [00:25:06.720]fascinating to him
- [00:25:09.050]and once he translates this into color
- [00:25:14.480]he is in another league it seems to me
- [00:25:19.230]or in another world he's using color to
- [00:25:23.220]blow apart that fairly conventional
- [00:25:26.040]drawing so and then he is reinventing
- [00:25:32.910]his spatial relationships in terms of
- [00:25:36.810]the color relationships there's another
- [00:25:39.450]one of those staves again and
- [00:25:41.930]enigmatic number he is indulging in his
- [00:25:52.030]apparently unmitigated fascination with
- [00:25:56.690]all things French the balcony railings
- [00:26:02.440]the shutters the sign on a cafe the
- [00:26:08.030]streetlight the cobblestones you name it
- [00:26:11.390]he is itemizing it and then of course in
- [00:26:14.480]this very nice homage he gives us the
- [00:26:19.040]colors of the French flag on the
- [00:26:21.230]building facade and then in then plays
- [00:26:24.200]with that with the pink and the green in
- [00:26:26.030]position so he's doing all kinds of
- [00:26:28.730]things at once now if you can
- [00:26:30.500]concentrate on the color structure of
- [00:26:34.400]this painting it's anything but a
- [00:26:37.910]conventional cityscape it is a very
- [00:26:42.190]inventive and accomplished composition
- [00:26:45.920]in rectangles in a kind of abstract
- [00:26:49.820]cubist structure the only thing that
- [00:26:54.740]makes us read it as a very very
- [00:26:58.180]convincing corner of Paris is the
- [00:27:01.220]drawing so he's got two things going on
- [00:27:04.970]at once Davis writes home or doesn't
- [00:27:13.370]write home he later describing his Paris
- [00:27:16.220]experience says that there was so much
- [00:27:20.330]of the past and the immediate present
- [00:27:23.590]brought up to one plane in Paris that
- [00:27:28.130]was one of the things that he was very
- [00:27:29.780]very impressed by is that what he's
- [00:27:34.190]doing here let's think about that he
- [00:27:41.270]exchanged studio visits with found on
- [00:27:43.820]leisure and wrote home that leisure was
- [00:27:49.550]not that interested in the paintings
- [00:27:52.580]that Davis was doing in Paris
- [00:27:54.940]he said they were too naturalistic for
- [00:27:58.240]him well take a good look at this ledger
- [00:28:03.270]without any less naturalistic than
- [00:28:07.780]Davis's last path the father knew about
- [00:28:13.440]what measured like if it he did say it
- [00:28:16.360]was very interesting that two people who
- [00:28:18.880]had never met were thinking about things
- [00:28:23.020]in such a similar way there's a liked
- [00:28:27.820]the two egg beater paintings that Davis
- [00:28:30.760]brought thought they were really
- [00:28:33.610]interesting so this was a rather
- [00:28:38.230]important justification of what he was
- [00:28:43.270]doing even though they Jay didn't think
- [00:28:46.330]the immediately the the pink current
- [00:28:49.480]paintings were as good as the egg
- [00:28:51.280]beaters but it was still an important
- [00:28:54.040]exchange that the particularity 's of
- [00:29:03.309]Paris still outweighed what in his
- [00:29:08.530]drawings anything that Davis was
- [00:29:12.610]thinking about in terms of abstract
- [00:29:15.309]structure about Cuba's construction
- [00:29:20.100]there are countless drawings like this
- [00:29:24.880]and as I've said several times before
- [00:29:29.470]they are of anything that was unlike
- [00:29:33.460]what you found in New York Davis and his
- [00:29:41.830]wife Betsy whom he married in Paris
- [00:29:46.110]she's not discussed very much he doesn't
- [00:29:51.190]appear in any of the letters home she
- [00:29:55.030]was a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn and
- [00:29:57.340]Davis's parents disapproved of her so he
- [00:30:00.640]acted as though he was alone in Paris he
- [00:30:04.660]wasn't
- [00:30:06.710]they eventually ran out of money in
- [00:30:08.720]August 1929 and came back to New York
- [00:30:13.460]just in time for the Depression this was
- [00:30:16.610]not great timing but and Davis was so
- [00:30:20.470]involved with his recollections of being
- [00:30:25.160]in Paris where he wrote several times he
- [00:30:27.680]didn't want to leave he wanted to stay
- [00:30:29.900]his idea he was going to have an
- [00:30:32.180]exhibition of the paintings he did in
- [00:30:34.250]Paris and prints that he made because
- [00:30:36.980]those sold and he was going to have
- [00:30:39.170]enough money to go back well that never
- [00:30:42.050]happened so he was continuing to work
- [00:30:46.100]from his drawings he was continuing to
- [00:30:49.880]remember the things that had interested
- [00:30:53.090]him when he was in Paris and here in
- [00:30:56.780]1930 he is still painting paintings like
- [00:31:00.860]this and doing everything that he did in
- [00:31:04.280]the French paintings including using
- [00:31:07.730]these very strong colored borders to
- [00:31:11.240]rein in this pulse between actuality and
- [00:31:15.950]invention and then you get a serious
- [00:31:20.990]small series of paintings called New
- [00:31:23.210]York Paris and I think that's pretty
- [00:31:26.420]self-explanatory you have the leg of the
- [00:31:30.110]can-can dancer you have the cafe the
- [00:31:33.110]cafe table and then you have the L and
- [00:31:36.880]the boat from Gloucester Harbor I don't
- [00:31:40.910]know how that got into New York but it
- [00:31:43.460]does you have the Chrysler Building and
- [00:31:45.830]you have a tobacco pouch Davis rolled
- [00:31:49.610]his own and he was particularly fond of
- [00:31:52.550]a brand called stud and I leave you to
- [00:31:56.240]decide what you think of that but it had
- [00:31:59.030]a leaping horse on the label and he
- [00:32:01.280]liked that quite a lot so what he is
- [00:32:04.100]doing here is exactly what he describes
- [00:32:08.090]later on he is bringing the past and the
- [00:32:11.000]present up to a single plane it's like a
- [00:32:14.480]kind of mental collage where he is
- [00:32:19.730]putting things like the l-train and the
- [00:32:24.260]the station of the L and the Chrysler
- [00:32:28.910]Building which he can see with his
- [00:32:33.049]recollections of Paris cafe and
- [00:32:37.570]Gloucester boats he also starts drawing
- [00:32:45.170]New York the way he drew Paris he is
- [00:32:50.480]beginning to find things like what we
- [00:32:54.470]would now call the I guess at Bodega
- [00:32:56.390]although was that it was a cigar store
- [00:32:58.640]and the signage of New York as
- [00:33:01.360]interesting as he found all the
- [00:33:03.890]specificity of Paris all the wrought
- [00:33:06.110]iron and the shutters and the signage so
- [00:33:08.960]his awareness which was honed during
- [00:33:13.370]these this year and a half in France is
- [00:33:17.030]now being turned on the place that he is
- [00:33:20.510]living in and he is beginning to treat
- [00:33:26.870]the New York landscape the New York
- [00:33:30.380]urban landscape with some of the ideas
- [00:33:34.610]that he used in Paris that is to say
- [00:33:37.429]using color having this to change the
- [00:33:41.840]relationships creating this kind of
- [00:33:46.090]stage set but he's also doing things
- [00:33:50.720]that are completely new I mean he's he's
- [00:33:52.580]playing havoc with scale here I mean
- [00:33:55.370]look at that group of apartment
- [00:33:57.770]buildings and office buildings on the
- [00:34:00.140]side and then the little cigar store and
- [00:34:03.799]barber shop that's completely irrational
- [00:34:06.860]relationship as is what you see in the
- [00:34:09.679]background and then the the Brooklyn
- [00:34:11.359]Bridge in the background and then this
- [00:34:13.369]giant gas light coming in and the awning
- [00:34:17.570]which is how is that awning on top of
- [00:34:19.909]that skyscraper so he's he is
- [00:34:23.889]reinventing space using these elements
- [00:34:27.919]as freely as he used collage elements
- [00:34:30.850]before
- [00:34:31.950]I ever went to France and you enriched
- [00:34:35.490]his vocabulary with signage with these
- [00:34:39.049]wonderful details of the urban landscape
- [00:34:41.639]and having a fine time with the words
- [00:34:45.569]here he talks about lock letters locking
- [00:34:49.260]the surface and locking the scale
- [00:34:51.990]because to anything that's written you
- [00:34:54.389]read as though it's on a flat surface no
- [00:34:57.089]matter what else is attached to and that
- [00:34:59.339]creates another kind of tension between
- [00:35:02.430]the illusion and the fact of the canvas
- [00:35:09.920]one of the most revealing paintings that
- [00:35:15.839]he does in 1930 is this eggbeater number
- [00:35:20.309]five you know you remember what the
- [00:35:21.930]previous egg beaters look like this is
- [00:35:24.780]much much larger
- [00:35:27.599]he's clearly thinking back to the kind
- [00:35:30.359]of tabletop still lives that he saw his
- [00:35:34.440]French colleagues doing it's much more
- [00:35:39.599]leisure like in some ways
- [00:35:41.309]so once he's safely in America he can
- [00:35:44.460]take on the French guys they're not
- [00:35:47.010]right there
- [00:35:47.849]and in on the one hand it's a very
- [00:35:51.920]ordinary kind of still life for just
- [00:35:55.170]what you'd expect a musical instrument
- [00:35:56.670]that's part of the vocabulary this
- [00:36:00.650]bottle which is maybe a siphon bottle or
- [00:36:04.859]may just be another kind of drink the
- [00:36:09.869]table is a totally American table I
- [00:36:12.150]never could figure out just what was
- [00:36:13.950]going on in it until I was in Milton
- [00:36:18.089]Avery's apartment and working on an
- [00:36:20.609]Avery show and there in the hallway well
- [00:36:24.540]it's a table exactly like this with that
- [00:36:27.059]weird metal thing in the middle
- [00:36:30.020]obviously the right vintage and then
- [00:36:33.480]there is this egg beater
- [00:36:35.280]well the French don't use that kind of
- [00:36:40.410]egg beater they use whisks and copper
- [00:36:43.290]bowls so
- [00:36:45.130]is a very very American object Davis has
- [00:36:51.160]a history of painting American objects
- [00:36:55.680]he went to Santa Fe on the advice of his
- [00:36:59.289]good friend John Sloan expecting to like
- [00:37:03.460]it and he hated it he said it was
- [00:37:06.490]ready-made for painters there was the
- [00:37:10.180]great dead population the archaeological
- [00:37:13.000]evidence he did not like it he went to
- [00:37:16.660]the hardware store and he got the things
- [00:37:20.769]that he painted a giant light bulb he
- [00:37:23.890]painted a giant light bulb a saw not the
- [00:37:28.960]picturesque landscape he can--he knocked
- [00:37:30.849]out a few landscapes because he was
- [00:37:32.619]there on some kind of arrangement where
- [00:37:34.180]he was supposed to paint some landscapes
- [00:37:36.039]they gave him a studio in exchange for
- [00:37:38.710]this but mostly he painted these things
- [00:37:41.170]from the hardware store got back to New
- [00:37:44.019]York he painted a percolator he painted
- [00:37:47.289]an ode all bottle so this was already
- [00:37:50.769]part of his vocabulary and of course I
- [00:37:53.440]told you about the eggbeater the glove
- [00:37:55.059]and the and the electric fan but here he
- [00:37:57.490]is after his French experience painting
- [00:38:00.910]this quintessentially American object
- [00:38:04.750]and I think you could argue that this is
- [00:38:07.750]a self-portrait this is Davis as the
- [00:38:11.460]tough American guy who can you know beat
- [00:38:15.460]eggs and he is in this cubist setup this
- [00:38:20.589]traditional Gally doll with all the
- [00:38:23.920]accoutrements the only thing he doesn't
- [00:38:25.420]have there is some sheet music but he's
- [00:38:27.910]got the musical instrument and it's
- [00:38:30.099]certainly unlike any of the other egg
- [00:38:31.960]beaters as you see it's also unlike the
- [00:38:37.690]kind of galeano tabletop still-life that
- [00:38:43.150]his French colleagues were painting at
- [00:38:45.490]the same time this is Davis's is much
- [00:38:50.799]more stripped-down much more vernacular
- [00:38:53.309]much more plain spoken and as I say
- [00:38:57.279]completely different from the
- [00:38:58.810]other eggbeaters the whole language of
- [00:39:06.430]the hardware store and the kitchen
- [00:39:09.490]supply store is something that is
- [00:39:12.570]coexisting with his interest in the
- [00:39:15.190]urban landscape it's also coexisting
- [00:39:18.850]with his interest in the working Harbor
- [00:39:21.610]that's a whole other issue
- [00:39:24.220]he returned to Gloucester every summer a
- [00:39:27.820]Gloucester is not a pleasure boat place
- [00:39:30.190]it's a working Harbor the fish in Whole
- [00:39:34.450]Foods comes from pigeon Cove which is a
- [00:39:37.180]Gloucester supplier at least it does in
- [00:39:39.820]the east and the accouterments of the
- [00:39:44.920]dock fascinated him all the lobster pots
- [00:39:48.580]and the nets and the bollards and the
- [00:39:50.860]stuff that you can't identify but he was
- [00:39:54.820]really an urban guy he was reported
- [00:39:57.070]never to go north of 14th Street unless
- [00:39:59.560]he absolutely had to he would go to
- [00:40:02.800]visit his good friend Jake Lawrence and
- [00:40:06.520]his wife Gwen who lived in Harlem Jake
- [00:40:10.990]Lawrence showed at the same calorie the
- [00:40:14.680]downtown gallery in New York they were
- [00:40:16.780]very good friends but that was his main
- [00:40:19.120]trip uptown
- [00:40:21.930]he loved the urban landscape as we've
- [00:40:25.210]seen but at the same time there is this
- [00:40:28.660]other side of him which are the large
- [00:40:31.630]scale vernacular everyday objects like
- [00:40:35.980]the 1927 percolator which is painted
- [00:40:38.710]just before he starts the egg beater
- [00:40:40.750]series and then when he comes back he
- [00:40:43.600]paints this remarkable salt shaker which
- [00:40:47.140]belongs the Museum of Modern Art and
- [00:40:48.880]they don't hang it nearly often enough
- [00:40:52.170]it's clear that he's thinking about
- [00:40:56.200]things he's seen in Paris and finding a
- [00:40:59.590]way of using them now that he is no
- [00:41:02.620]longer there you all you have to do is
- [00:41:06.520]look at this wonderful studio interior
- [00:41:11.930]ezal with the framing device with this
- [00:41:15.650]dissected chair look at mil of the same
- [00:41:18.920]period and you realize that he's
- [00:41:20.990]remembering things that he saw he's
- [00:41:23.630]probably also seeing me all in New York
- [00:41:25.519]because Miho exhibited a lot in New York
- [00:41:28.150]but he's now using his modernist
- [00:41:32.329]ancestors in in a different way he's
- [00:41:39.609]constantly rethinking the kind of urban
- [00:41:44.329]landscape however that he invented for
- [00:41:48.319]himself in Paris and I'm going to
- [00:41:51.559]interest and offer a blanket apology for
- [00:41:54.619]the next few slides which were made by a
- [00:41:57.700]student of mine who doesn't doesn't seem
- [00:42:01.099]to believe in bright ankles but she's a
- [00:42:06.470]really nice student so I couldn't argue
- [00:42:08.539]too much but why didn't you weigh down
- [00:42:10.819]the pages I got a blank look but you get
- [00:42:15.200]the idea
- [00:42:17.119]here are two paintings made China in 11
- [00:42:21.440]years apart and this is Davis rethinking
- [00:42:25.970]this idea about the urban landscape that
- [00:42:29.480]starts in Paris it gets transformed in
- [00:42:33.829]New York he goes back to it now this is
- [00:42:37.640]something he does all the time he is the
- [00:42:41.329]great recycler after 1950 there's I
- [00:42:46.460]think only one series of paintings that
- [00:42:49.970]isn't based on his own earlier work part
- [00:42:55.130]of that is the what I mentioned to you
- [00:42:58.160]earlier his belief that a configuration
- [00:43:01.220]was the bones of the painting that color
- [00:43:06.049]existed to create spatial dynamic and
- [00:43:09.579]that a good configuration could be used
- [00:43:13.309]many times and with different color have
- [00:43:18.019]a different kind of structure and space
- [00:43:21.140]and that's certainly what he's doing
- [00:43:23.359]here often
- [00:43:25.460]he embellishes with new kinds of I think
- [00:43:32.780]the only word for it is stuff floating
- [00:43:36.730]signs they Davis was a passionate lover
- [00:43:43.400]of jazz to the point where he named his
- [00:43:48.200]only child who was born when he was
- [00:43:50.390]sixty after his two favorite jazz
- [00:43:53.180]musicians that's commitment I don't know
- [00:43:56.300]if it's why I've had any say in this at
- [00:43:57.770]all but the son was named after Earl
- [00:44:01.730]fatha Hines and George wetly it's as
- [00:44:07.700]though it's a kind of Maoist
- [00:44:10.250]self-criticism as well it's okay this is
- [00:44:14.060]how I should have done it if I had known
- [00:44:16.220]then what I know now this is what I
- [00:44:18.560]would have done and you can see some of
- [00:44:20.930]that in New York under Gaslight which
- [00:44:23.570]has much more going on in it than
- [00:44:26.390]barbershop the this strange accumulation
- [00:44:30.950]of gesture and rooftop in the foreground
- [00:44:35.440]the embellishment on the statue the
- [00:44:38.690]patterns on the glass the much more
- [00:44:42.589]dramatic patterning of the skyscrapers
- [00:44:46.250]the blast of gas from The Gaslight and
- [00:44:49.849]these floating things up about it's much
- [00:44:52.880]much more about pattern it's much more
- [00:44:54.920]about surface and that happens very much
- [00:44:58.099]in the forties but he also much much
- [00:45:02.930]later goes back to the Paris paintings
- [00:45:07.490]in a very different way and this is what
- [00:45:12.050]I mean by the Maoist self-criticism this
- [00:45:18.050]is how I should have painted it it was a
- [00:45:21.980]good idea but I could have done it
- [00:45:23.990]better and it's also like a jazz
- [00:45:30.680]musician taking a well-known tune and
- [00:45:36.730]inverting it
- [00:45:39.090]making new harmonies syncopating it
- [00:45:43.290]adding licks Davis didn't play a musical
- [00:45:47.590]instrument but he certainly understood
- [00:45:50.050]what was going on when he listened to
- [00:45:51.940]jazz and you could argue that a painting
- [00:45:55.510]like the Paris bit is a replaying of
- [00:46:00.100]that melody on the accordion that was
- [00:46:05.260]playing while he sat in the Paris cafe
- [00:46:07.630]and played in a whole new way he's not
- [00:46:12.100]hiding what he's doing he's got the
- [00:46:15.310]number 28 in there to tell us that the
- [00:46:17.710]original painting was made in 28 he's
- [00:46:21.970]gotten rid of the cleft that says 21
- [00:46:26.460]he's added Hotel to the hotel he's not
- [00:46:33.340]Bell false in there again but he's added
- [00:46:36.550]other ideas any to express something
- [00:46:43.870]that he wrote about very often which is
- [00:46:46.270]any subject will do he lines thicken he
- [00:46:55.510]adds old the French for water in large
- [00:46:59.830]letters the X stands for of whole theory
- [00:47:04.540]he had about external versus internal
- [00:47:07.740]relationships you can if you really work
- [00:47:12.550]at it decode a lot of this but he's
- [00:47:15.550]really writing private messages to
- [00:47:18.190]himself and turning them into a kind of
- [00:47:23.340]visual embellishment clearly that time
- [00:47:30.130]in Paris was enormous Lee important to
- [00:47:32.500]him it was he was 35 when he arrived and
- [00:47:40.980]the kind of tension between a
- [00:47:46.530]recognizable image and an abstract super
- [00:47:50.620]sculpture as a structure of
- [00:47:52.150]color is something that you can trace
- [00:47:55.750]through his work in future with the
- [00:47:59.260]abstract superstructure becoming more
- [00:48:02.260]and more dominant it's a kind of I
- [00:48:09.420]suppose education it's a kind of
- [00:48:13.809]liberation but it had another very very
- [00:48:18.160]important effect on Davis which when he
- [00:48:21.490]wrote about it in 1931 a few years after
- [00:48:24.700]returning was really indicative of what
- [00:48:30.130]happens to American art in the 20th
- [00:48:33.849]century he said that his stay in France
- [00:48:39.119]enabled him here I'm quoting Davis to
- [00:48:43.690]spike the disheartening rumour that
- [00:48:46.329]there were hundreds of talented young
- [00:48:48.549]modern artists who completely outclassed
- [00:48:50.890]their American equivalents it proved to
- [00:48:54.730]me that one might go on working in New
- [00:48:56.920]York without laboring under an
- [00:48:58.720]impossible artistic handicap it allowed
- [00:49:02.410]me to observe the enormous vitality of
- [00:49:05.020]the American atmosphere as compared to
- [00:49:07.329]Europe and made me regard the necessity
- [00:49:10.180]of working in New York as a positive
- [00:49:12.270]advantage 1931 the depression is on he's
- [00:49:23.109]very very involved with social activism
- [00:49:27.490]there's so much that he really painted
- [00:49:29.680]very little in the 30s he did a lot of
- [00:49:31.990]drawing but he was out there on the
- [00:49:34.900]barricades he was one of the people that
- [00:49:36.309]got the WPA to recognize that artists
- [00:49:39.460]were workers he was the head of the
- [00:49:43.059]artists American artist Congress he was
- [00:49:46.720]as I say very very active but he also
- [00:49:51.700]was aware that you could make really
- [00:49:54.579]important are in America and we know
- [00:49:58.480]that happened so we partly have Davis to
- [00:50:01.930]thank for that
- [00:50:03.240]thank you
- [00:50:06.800][Applause]
- [00:50:12.260]um there any any questions I'll try to
- [00:50:16.170]answer them
- [00:50:27.260]no that's he wished he did no and we
- [00:50:31.530]were looking at that photograph today if
- [00:50:33.390]you look at the hands this is not a guy
- [00:50:35.069]who knew our players bad yeah but he was
- [00:50:41.010]a very important it was very important
- [00:50:42.960]to him in fact when he finally met
- [00:50:44.720]Mondrian the one thing that when
- [00:50:48.150]Mondrian came to the United States he
- [00:50:51.720]the one thing they had in common was
- [00:50:53.609]jazz well you should all go up and look
- [00:51:02.339]at our church oh thank you
- [00:51:08.210][Applause]
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