fine art as an investment

Stuart Davis (1892–1964) by Lisa Bush Hankin

leading member of the first genera- with a current record auction price of four and family friends (1865–1929) and tion of artists who put a distinctly a half million dollars (Fig. 1). (1871–1951), whose early artistic A American spin on the modernist ideas Born in , Davis was the son of support enabled the young man to participate then percolating in Europe, Stuart Davis is cel- professional artists (a sculptor and the art in prominent exhibitions including the ebrated for his lively and colorful canvases that director for the Philadelphia Press), who relo- groundbreaking 1913 , an event incorporate imagery from the American pop- cated to northern , outside New that profoundly affected the direction his art ular culture of his day. Davis is seen as a York City, when Davis was nine. Davis bene- would take. Though Davis’ early works reflect seminal figure in early , and his fited early in his career from the guidance of the influence of the (Fig. 2), he works are highly sought after by both museums soon chose to depart from representing his and collectors. As a result, his major paintings Stuart Davis subjects in an illusionistic manner, dispensing Record Prices for Work at Auction do not appear on the market very frequently, with 3-dimensional form in favor of using and — as back-to-back multimillion dollar Present $4,500,000 line, color, and pattern to capture the energy 2005 $2,400,000 sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in the fall of Fig. 1: 2005 demonstrate — they bring considerable 2000 $2,400,000 Rue de l’Echaude, 1928. sums when they do.1 Davis’ prices have 1995 $880,000 Oil and sand on canvas, 23ƒ x 36© inches. 1990 $880,000

climbed steadily over the past twenty years, AskArt.com Source: Courtesy of Sotheby’s, New York.

152 www.antiquesandfineart.com Summer/Autumn Fig. 2: Market and Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey, 1917. Oil on panel, 16 x 12 inches Courtesy Brock & Company, Carlisle, Ma.

and variety of contemporary American everyday world around him, integrating roadside architecture, car culture, and life (Figs. 3–5). While Davis’ crisp cutout-like elements of , figuration, and land- consumer packaging, to name but a few of forms owe much to the influence of French scape in his trademark brand of abstracted the many influences that contribute to the master , his enthusiastic realism. Often incorporating scenery from in vitality of his work. embrace of the signs, symbols and feel of and around Gloucester, Massachusetts Happily for collectors, Davis enjoyed a long America’s burgeoning commercial culture were (where he spent many summers), New York, and productive career (Fig. 4), creating prints, distinctively his own. and Paris, Davis’ work was also informed drawings, and watercolors in addition to his Davis drew his inspiration from the by music (particularly jazz), advertising, major oil paintings and mural commissions.

2007 Antiques & Fine Art 153 fine art as an investment

Although Davis’ major pictures command O’Reilly Galleries) contains essays by scholars TOP LEFT: seven-figure prices, his prints, drawings, mural William Agee and Karen Wilkin as well as an Fig. 3: Lounge, 1930. Gouache on paper, 14˙ x 19˙ inches. studies and smaller paintings can be had for exhaustive chronology of the artist’s life. With Courtesy Owen Gallery, NY. far less. Certain examples of his color prints its detailed documentation and inclusion begin at about a thousand dollars, with prices of 600 works that have never before been LOWER LEFT: Fig. 4: White Walls, 1959. for other prints, drawings, and lithographs illustrated, this volume will undoubtedly Oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches. climbing from there. This variety of mediums serve as an important resource for collectors Courtesy AJ Kollar Fine Paintings, LLC, and range of prices enable even enthusiasts on interested in the artist’s work for many years Seattle,

a tight budget to participate in collecting the to come. RIGHT: work of this highly influential and immensely Fig. 5: The Blues, 1925. appealing artist. Lisa Bush Hankin is director of research Gouache and ink on board, 9© x 11ƒ inches Scholars Mark Rutkowski and Ani at Adelson Galleries in New York, where Private Collection; image courtesy Boyajian have recently completed Stuart she specializes in nineteenth- and twentieth- of Alexandre Gallery, N.Y. Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, to be released century American fine art. by Press this fall. Comprised 1 Rue de l’Echaude, 1928 sold for $4,496,000 at Sotheby’s of three volumes that document some 1750 on November 30, 2005, and Still Life with Flowers, 1930, of Davis’ works, the catalogue (produced sold for $3,150,000 at Christie’s on December 1, 2005. in conjunction with New York’s Salander-

154 www.antiquesandfineart.com Summer/Autumn