Art Theory Text with Table 1949

Curator: Here we have Stuart Davis’s "Art Theory Text with Table," a simple sketch, really. It’s all angles and rudimentary shapes. Gives the impression of an architect's quick doodle, maybe? Editor: Yes, but it feels like more than a doodle. See the penmanship at the bottom? The drawing supports the handwritten note, questioning the relationship between the felt image and the drawn image. I’m interested in the materiality of the work. It reveals an engagement with language. Curator: Exactly! It’s about bridging that gap, isn't it? The handwritten bit and the sketch mirror each other, suggesting that he’s thinking through the very act of creation, in the moment. Editor: Thinking and making. I also see the table as a symbol of labor, a space where ideas, things, are processed, created, then consumed. Curator: Perhaps the note is suggesting that the validity of the image isn't reliant on its precise, photorealistic form. What does it even mean to draw a table "accurately"? Editor: Right, and the text itself becomes a material part of the artwork. Curator: A happy accident. Art and words, dancing together on the page. Editor: It all comes down to how the artist conceives of a subject. And the means through which it is realized. It's thought-provoking.