Oil on canvas, framed. Featuring abstract figures. Attributed to Stuart Davis (1892-1964, American). 100 x 81 cm (39.4 x 31.9 inches). PROVENANCE: Private estate (Toronto, ON)

Stuart Davis was an American Modernist painter, best known for his brilliantly colored abstractions of jazz musicians, street scenes, and landscapes. Davis was a conduit for American culture, and through his graphic forms and aggregate compositions, he translated his experiences into dynamic works such as The Mellow Pad (1945–1951). “My concept of form is very simple and is based on the assumption that space is continuous and that matter is discontinuous,” he once explained. “In my formal concept the question of two or more dimensions does not enter.” Born on December 7, 1892 in Philadelphia, PA, Davis studied under the Ashcan School painter Robert Henri in New York. Heeding Henri’s advice to paint the gritty everyday scenes of the city, Davis frequented back alleys and saloons while becoming involved in leftist politics. Rising to prominence after his inclusion in the famed 1913 Armory Show, it was at the exhibition that he first saw the works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. By the 1920s, Davis’s work shifted from the realist aesthetic of his youth into the mature abstracted compositions he is best known for. Over the following decade, he became friends with the artists John Graham, Charles Demuth, and Arshile Gorky. It was during the Great Depression that Davis’s work became increasingly critical of capitalism and he began using painting as a vehicle for his political views. Unable to remain at forefront of the avant-garde during the 1950s, Davis nonetheless represented the United States in both the 1952 and 1954 Venice Biennales. He died on June 24, 1964 in New York, NY. Today, the artist’s works are included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, among others.

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American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).