Abstract Meets Pop Culture in Stuart Davis' Iconic Art

Art historian and curator Barbara Haskell discusses “Stuart Davis: In Full Swing” now on view at the Whitney Museum (99 Gansevoort Street) through September 25th. The exhibit focuses on Davis’s later career and illustrates his influence in American modernism and pop art.  

Stuart Davis (1892–1964), Tropes de Teens, 1956. Oil on canvas, 45 1/4 x 60 1/4 in. (114.8 x 153 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

(© Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photograph by Cathy Carver)

Stuart Davis (1892–1964), Town Square, c. 1929. Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, 15 1/2 x 22 7/8 in. (39.4 x 58.1 cm). The Newark Museum; purchase 1930, The General Fund.

(© Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)

Stuart Davis (1892–1964), New York Mural, 1932. Oil on canvas, 84 x 48 in. (213.4 x 122 cm). Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; purchase, R. H. Norton Trust.

(© Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)

Stuart Davis (1892–1964), Lucky Strike, 1921. Oil on canvas, 33 1/4 x 18 in. (84.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of the American Tobacco Company, Inc., 1951.

(© Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)