Memo

Stuart Davis, Memo, 1956, oil on linen, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.19
Copied Stuart Davis, Memo, 1956, oil on linen, 36 x 28 1⁄4 in. (91.5 x 71.7 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.19

Artwork Details

Title
Memo
Artist
Date
1956
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
36 x 28 1⁄4 in. (91.5 x 71.7 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on linen
Classifications
Subjects
  • Object — numeral
  • Object — letter
  • Architecture — boat — sailboat
  • Waterscape — harbor
  • Abstract — geometric
Object Number
1986.6.19
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.6.19

Artwork Description

Although working with abstracted forms, Stuart Davis always considered himself a realist and devised a kind of artistic shorthand for this “memo” about Gloucester harbor. Ship masts and wharf structures are schematically suggested by intersecting white lines below a white circle that floats like the moon against a night sky. The foreground is a tangle of overlapping red and green planes punctuated by letters and numbers. The word “ANY” at the bottom left refers to Davis’s belief that any subject can be transformed into art; the number 8 his reference to infinity.


Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014