Men and Machine

Stuart Davis

1934 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

Heralded for his abstract visual evocations of jazz, Davis also responded profoundly to the industrial age in his art. The present work features two men standing before a schematically rendered structure with their backs to the viewer. Likely representing a construction site with the foreman and investor looking on, the painting alludes to New York’s interwar construction boom. Highlighting the degree to which industrialism was associated with masculinity, Davis’s painting, consisting of primary colors on a white ground, also testifies to the artist’s respect for Piet Mondrian.

Artist

Stuart Davis

Date

1934

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jay R. Braus, 1981