Angle Theory Diagrams 1932

Curator: Stuart Davis’s "Angle Theory Diagrams," currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a fascinating exploration of spatial relationships. Look at how he uses a humble material, paper, to wrestle with concepts of geometry. Editor: It feels like a peek into his mind. All these lines and shapes almost vibrating on the page, like he’s trying to visualize sound. Curator: Precisely. Davis's notes reveal an attempt to dissect and understand the underlying structures of visual experience through mathematical principles. The use of simple tools like a pen allows direct engagement with the material. Editor: I see a connection to cubism, breaking down form and then reassembling it according to a new logic, a new rhythm. It’s like visual jazz, improvisational, immediate. Curator: The diagrammatic approach reveals the production of knowledge. We see the artist actively engaged in a process of inquiry. Editor: Ultimately, it inspires us to perceive the world around us with a renewed sense of wonder, to seek out the underlying harmony in apparent chaos.