Art Theory Text with C-Scale Object Diagram 1950

Curator: Here we have Stuart Davis's intriguing "Art Theory Text with C-Scale Object Diagram," its date, unfortunately, unknown. It’s ink on paper, 27.8 by 21.4 centimeters. The Harvard Art Museums hold this cryptic sheet. Editor: It feels like a secret code, doesn't it? A personal manifesto scrawled on a scrap. There's something almost obsessive about the density of the text and the diagram. Curator: Davis was obsessed! He sought a logical foundation for abstract art. The "C-Scale" seems to be a system he devised for organizing visual information—a quest for objectivity. I imagine the diagram as a key. Editor: It also feels like a cage, though. All that text about logic and the constant absolute impulse...isn’t that trying to contain something inherently uncontainable? Isn’t art about breaking free? Curator: Perhaps Davis saw freedom in structure. This page hints at a deeply personal effort to reconcile intuition and intellect, to find his unique way of seeing. Editor: I guess even revolution needs its rules sometimes. Seeing it in this light is...illuminating.