Frame Analysis 1940

Curator: We're looking at Stuart Davis's "Frame Analysis," a pencil sketch on paper from 1940, part of the Harvard Art Museums collection. It's rather small, about 21 by 27 centimeters. Editor: It feels like a blueprint for a dream, you know? Like the scaffolding holding up some abstract thought. Curator: Precisely. Davis dissects the very notion of the picture frame, exploring its compositional role. The repeated lines create a sense of depth, almost a vortex. Editor: And the handwritten notes, "Monotony of Intervals Corrected" scrawled in red? Feels like the artist wrestling with the ghost in the machine. It adds a layer of delightful imperfection. Curator: Indeed. Davis employs language as another structural element, disrupting the purely visual. It's a fascinating interplay between text and image, form and concept. Editor: It's more than just a frame. It's Davis thinking aloud, revealing his process. You start to wonder, what would he have put *inside* the frame, and how would it change the piece? Curator: A question left delightfully unanswered. It's an image that manages to capture the artist's intention and practice. Editor: Leaving us to fill in the blanks with our own frames of reference.