Memo

Stuart Davis, Memo, 1956, oil on linen, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.19
Stuart Davis, Memo, 1956, oil on linen, 3628 14 in. (91.571.7 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
3628 14 in. (91.571.7 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on linen
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture — boat — sailboat
  • Object — letter
  • Object — numeral
  • Waterscape — harbor
  • Abstract — geometric
Object Number
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

Works by this artist (23 items)

Stuart Davis, Int'l Surface No. 1, 1960, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.55
Int’l Surface No. 1
Date1960
oil on canvas
On view
Stuart Davis, New Jersey Landscape (Seine Cart), 1939, lithograph on wove paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the D.C. Public Library, 2018.5.2
New Jersey Landscape (Seine Cart)
Date1939
lithograph on wove paper
Not on view
Stuart Davis, Waterfront Landscape, 1936, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, 1972.80
Waterfront Landscape
Date1936
oil on canvas
Not on view