Man at a Table 1925

Stuart Davis made this painting, 'Man at a Table,' with ink on paper. It's all about stark contrasts and bold shapes, isn't it? I can almost feel Davis at work, carefully filling in each area with black, stepping back, and then adding more detail. I wonder what he was thinking as he worked. It feels like he's after some kind of deep structure, getting at the feeling of a space. What does it mean to flatten it like this? How does that affect the content, and what it communicates? Look how the shapes balance each other. The face is split, half in shadow. What does the letter say? Davis is one of those artists who makes you see the world differently. He plays with form and representation. I think it comes from an appreciation of all the visual things around him – signs, advertisements, architecture – and then pushing these things into some kind of personal symbolic language. Ultimately, he just makes you want to go make something yourself.