Stuart Davis American, 1894-1964

Throughout his ever-evolving career, Stuart Davis synthesized the major styles of 20th-century modernism and made vibrant, inventive paintings that alternately embraced representational and conceptual concerns. He is perhaps best known for a bold, rhythmic style that fused hard-edged geometries with texts and imagery drawn from advertising.

The artist’s earlier work favored the realism of the Ashcan School, but the influence of Cubism and Post-Impressionism led Davis to a more graphic, abstract mode which nevertheless incorporated recognizable shapes and subject matter. His jazzy aesthetic served as a precursor to Pop art. Davis participated in the 1913 Armory Show and went on to work as a muralist for the Works Progress Administration. His work has sold for seven figures at auction and belongs in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among other institutions.