Art Theory Text with Sketch 1942

Curator: Up next is "Art Theory Text with Sketch" by Stuart Davis. We don't have a precise date for it, but it’s held at the Harvard Art Museums. It's pen and ink on paper. Editor: It feels so immediate, like a glimpse into the artist's thought process. The geometric forms floating above these handwritten equations, it's almost playful. Curator: Davis was deeply interested in the relationship between abstraction and the everyday. Here, you see him exploring visual language, breaking down forms and then reconstructing them on the page. Editor: Yes, the interplay of line and text creates a visual rhythm. It seems he is dissecting elements, exploring how they relate—"Iteration in Relative Size and Direction"—a crucial concept, right? Curator: Precisely. He's laying bare the foundations of his artistic logic, connecting the act of seeing with the act of making through the labor involved in its production and the relationship of these components to one another. Editor: Seeing this, I feel like I have a better understanding of Davis and his artmaking. Curator: Indeed. It offers an intimate look at how he conceptualized his work, revealing his methodology in a raw and unfiltered way.