STUART DAVIS Made by: Sara OCCUPATION & FAMILY

• Born: 7-Dec-1892 Birthplace: Philadelphia, PA Died: 24-Jun-1964 Location of death: New York City Cause of death: Stroke Remains: Buried, Green River Cemetery, East Hampton, NY

• Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Painter • Nationality: United States Executive summary: American cubist painter • Military service: US Army (cartographer, WWI) • Father: Edward Wyatt Davis (graphic artist, newspaper editor) Mother: Helen Stuart Foulke (sculptor) Brother: Wyatt Davis (b. 14-Feb-1906) Wife: Bessie Chosak (m. 1929, d. 15-Jun-1932 botched abortion) Wife: Roselle Springer (m. 25-Feb-1938) Son: George Earl Davis (b. 1952)

STUART GOING TO SCHOOL

• At the age of 16, Davis dropped out of high school to study with Robert Henri at the artist’s school in New York City. His parents weren’t the least bit worried over his decision, as they were close friends of Henri and could not have thought of a more experienced mentor for their son. For the next three years, Davis remained at Henri’s school, where he learned above all, to capture “life in the raw.” Under the direction of artist John Sloan, the teenage Davis gained additional experience as an illustrator for the socialist weekly, The Masses • Robert wanted his students to be spontaneous • Which is probably where Davis got being an abstract artist SOME OF STUART’S ART • In 1927, Davis encountered a crossroads in his career when he mounted an electric fan, a rubber glove and an eggbeater to a table. The Eggbeater Series, was then debuted at the Valentine Gallery. Upon the success of the show, benefactor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney urged Davis to travel to Paris. With her financial help, he was able to go abroad for a year with his girlfriend Bessie Chosak. Once in Paris, he found a studio in the Montparnasse district, painted many Paris street scenes, and married Bessie Chosak.

• When the teenage Stuart Davis first moved to New York City, his talent in the American Realist tradition was exceptional. Robert Henri praised his work, and he was often compared to his colleague, Thomas Hart Benton, who was five years older than he. However, Davis’ artistic direction took a different course after he witnessed the Armory Show of 1913. From this point forward, it can be said that Stuart Davis and Thomas Hart Benton became lifelong rivals, artists of polar opposites. Whereas Benton became famous as a leader of the Regionalist movement, Davis would go on to paint abstract paintings and become a forefather of the Pop Art movement. • Davis’ shift to abstraction was not an immediate one. He took time in his quest to become a “modern” artist. He explored both Post-Impressionist and Fauvist canvases. It was not until the 1920s that Davis first began to truly research the European techniques of abstraction and Synthetic Cubism. The crown of Davis’ attempts to master Cubism occurred during 1927 and 1928, when he mounted an eggbeater, electric fan, and a rubber glove to a table. He then called the Eggbeater Series and the paintings that followed, his “formula pictures,” claiming that the formula involved stripping down his observations of nature to their very core. In doing so, he could paint the same subject matter over and over again, with triumph. • Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he taught at the Art Students League and at the New School for Social Research to supplement his income and promote his ideas on art theory. By the 1950s, Stuart Davis was already a fixed icon in American art. He was enjoying international success and married his second wife, Roselle Springer, who would later give birth to his only child, George Earle. Together, Davis and his wife would frequent local jazz nightclubs. Davis, a longtime fan of jazz and swing music, drew inspiration from the genres and was even friends with famous musicians, such as Duke Ellington. • Stuart Davis continued to enjoy success as an artist well into his later years. He received honors as a representative of the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1952 and 1954. In addition, he was awarded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum International Award in both 1958 and 1960. On June 24, 1964, he died suddenly from a stroke, leaving behind a legacy of paintings and a reputation as one of America’s first modernists. THIS IS MY FAVORITE PAINTING OF HIS. STUART DAVIS

• I liked my artist that I had last year… • To be truly honest I like him more than Stuart THE END •I hope ya’ll liked my presentation!! •<3