Art Theory Text with Arc 1942

Editor: This is "Art Theory Text with Arc" by Stuart Davis. It's undated, but held at the Harvard Art Museums. It seems to be a handwritten page. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The text presents a theoretical dissection of visual form. Davis seems preoccupied with reducing the complexity of observed reality into elemental components. Notice the emphasis on shape, horizontal-vertical concepts, and "serial fields." Editor: So he's breaking down how we see the world? Curator: Precisely. He's outlining a formalist approach, where the "objective visual elements" of painting are paramount, almost divorced from subjective experience. It reduces art to its most essential structure.