Color Diagrams 1942

Curator: Stuart Davis's "Color Diagrams" invites a close look at process. This work on paper, roughly 11 by 8 inches, shows his considerations of color and form relationships. What strikes you first about it? Editor: There's a raw energy. It feels like a jazz riff, a visual improvisation jotted down, not precious, but full of possibility. Curator: Exactly! Davis explores the architecture of color. You see "blue," "green," "black" scrawled next to diagrammatic shapes. This reveals the material conditions for his paintings. Editor: It's like the skeleton of a painting, the bare bones showing his thought process. I wonder what the finished painting looked like. Curator: It's like seeing the artist's brain at work, reducing visual experience to its most basic elements. Fascinating! Editor: Indeed! A blueprint of the artist's mind, stripped bare!