Size-Color-Interval Series Diagrams 1930

Editor: This drawing by Stuart Davis, titled "Size-Color-Interval Series Diagrams," appears to be from 1930, judging by the inscription at the top. It's a pretty small piece, almost like a notebook sketch, and the geometric shapes and handwritten notes give it a scientific yet personal feel. What do you make of it? Curator: It’s a fascinating glimpse into Davis’s artistic process. He's mapping out relationships between size, color, and interval. These diagrams, from the perspective of contemporary theory, are akin to language itself: a system of signs and relationships. Davis is not just arranging shapes, he’s exploring a visual syntax, a language rooted in the social context of abstraction itself. Do you see how he's using that syntax to create his own visual vocabulary? Editor: So, it's not just about the aesthetic, but about creating a system? That's interesting. I hadn't considered it that way. Curator: Precisely. He’s building a framework for understanding and representing the world, a framework deeply intertwined with the social and intellectual currents of his time.