#stuart davis

 Blue Café - Stuart Davis , 1928.

American, 1892 - 1964

Stuart Davis, New York Waterfront, 1938. Oil on canvas.

Davis’s brightly colored and energetic canvases reflect the dynamism of twentieth-century American life. The waterfront—from the bustling ports of New York to small boat harbors in New England—was one of his favorite themes. While Cubist tableaux often depict figurative or still life motifs, Davis chose instead to portray a bustling urban landscape comprising pier warehouses, smokestacks, and ship fragments. Additionally, Davis was one of the first visual artists to recognize jazz as a distinct American genre; his compositions relate to its syncopated rhythms and the diverse locations where this music thrived. The predominate use of red, white, and blue also underscores this work’s undeniable patriotic theme.