The Parrish Art Museum - East End Stories

Stuart Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1892. Davis’s father was a newspaper art editor who employed such noted realists as John Sloan and William Glackens; his mother was a successful sculptor. At 16 he dropped out of high school to study at Robert Henri’s art school in New York City. Davis was invited to participate in the Armory Show in 1913 after which, moved by the work of Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Matisse, he vowed to become a “modern” artist. In the ensuring years he became friends with modernists Charles Demuth, Arshile Gorky, and John Graham and researched such European styles as Synthetic Cubism, the influence of which became evident in his Eggbeater Series from 1927-28. An egg beater, a rubber glove, and an electric fan became the elements of these still lifes. Other works were inspired by jazz and the streets of New York. His bright colors and use of everyday objects such as billboards and gas pumps marked Davis as a precursor to the Pop artists. He enjoyed success into his later years and is represented in the collections of major museums throughout the U.S. Davis visited the East End during his lifetime, where his circle included Lee Krasner, and he is buried in the Green River Cemetery in Springs, not far from Krasner and Jackson Pollock.