Color-Space Field Diagrams 1941

Editor: This is Stuart Davis's "Color-Space Field Diagrams," housed at the Harvard Art Museums. It appears to be a study, maybe a page from a sketchbook. I am drawn to the writing that surrounds the images. How do you interpret this work, especially in relation to Davis's other abstract pieces? Curator: Davis uses a symbolic language, not just in the colors but in the diagrams themselves. The cube, with its colored lines, becomes a microcosm of spatial relationships. Do you see how the letter "N" within the cube might function as a navigational point, a reference to an internal compass or directional force within the larger composition? Editor: That's fascinating! I hadn’t considered the 'N' as a symbol in itself. It gives me a new lens to look at the relationship between shapes and text. Curator: Exactly! Davis is inviting us to decode his visual lexicon, a language rooted in the interplay between abstract form and symbolic meaning.