Composition 1931

Stuart Davis made this composition using ink on paper, and what strikes me is the sheer pleasure he must have had puzzling it all out. I can imagine him shuffling shapes like cards on a table, or maybe even dreaming them up. There’s a hand, or is it a weird worm? And a grid like some windows? I just love how all these forms are stuffed in together, playing off one another. Davis is playing here, just trying to find out what fits, what clashes. This reminds me of the work of other artists who embraced the energy and fragmentation of modern life like Picasso and Braque. And like them, Davis seems to ask what a picture can be? How much can you push it? That back-and-forth, that conversation between artists across time, is what keeps art alive, you know? We’re all just riffing off each other, trying to make sense of things, one brushstroke at a time.