Provenance

Earl Davis

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This vertical painting is made up of eleven vignettes loosely arranged in four rows. The scenes are roughly painted so many details are difficult to make out, and one flows into the other, creating a somewhat surreal impression. They seem to illustrate the people and places of a specific location. For example, just right of center are two women in acid-green dresses. One stands with her back to us while the other sits to our left with her head turned away . Directly above them, a man silhouetted in black stands at the corner of a purple and peach building. He wears a wide-brimmed hat and holds onto a tall black object that is hard to identify. He stands against an ivory-white sky with indistinct brown and coral-orange shapes below it. An area in tones of charcoal gray flows away from him toward the right. Another vignette in the upper right shows a black gate and fence that enclose a cemetery stretched out before a church. The lower left has a scene of a black Model-T car parked facing us in front of a white building. The structure has a large window next to a wide opening where a man in black coveralls leans against the right side. An orange, old-fashioned gasoline pump stands before a forest-green tree trunk to the right of the car. Finally, filling the lower right is a tan-colored street running past a turquoise-blue house with a peanut-brown roof. Quick strokes of color suggest two people in front of the house. Further back along the road are two nickel-gray horses. The overall palette is dominated by green, blue, white, black, red, orange, and brown. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “STUART DAVIS 1918.”
Stuart Davis, Multiple Views, 1918, oil on canvas, Gift of Earl Davis, 2008.124.1

Multiple Views

Stuart Davis · 1918 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2008.124.1