Barber Shop Chord 1931

Stuart Davis made "Barber Shop Chord" with ink on paper and it's a knockout of dynamic black and white shapes and lines! I can imagine Davis working, maybe listening to jazz, turning the everyday world of a street into something that vibrates with energy. What was he thinking, putting a fire hydrant right next to a cafe? A barber shop pole so close to a sign? The image almost feels like a collage, as though pieces of reality have been torn up and reassembled into a new kind of visual music. There's a real conversation happening between the starkness of the black ink and the negative space of the white paper. It reminds me of Léger, but with a distinctly American flavor, like a visual shout-out to the urban landscape. It feels as if Davis is showing us how to see the world anew, turning the ordinary into something extraordinary, just by shifting our perspective.