monday thoughts: stuart davis, overlooked artist

I had hardly heard of Stuart Davis until I got to college. I think he's overlooked by a lot of people—he doesn't really fit into a school. Though he predated abstract expressionism and pop art by a few years, his work is as dynamic and interesting as, say, Robert Motherwell or Robert Rauschenberg. He painted snippets of advertising, words, and banal objects like egg beaters and salt shakers long before Andy Warhol ever considered a Brillo box or a soup can. His earlier cityscapes are beautifully simple, while his later paintings—known to be influenced by Davis's love of jazz—are big, bold, and fantastically composed.