Stuart Davis (American, 1892–1964)
Saw
INV-7152
Stuart Davis (American, 1892–1964)1923
ModernismCubismoil on canvaspainting
Date
1923
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
94 × 55.9 cm (37 × 22 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Through prior gift of William Wrigley
In this painting, Stuart Davis presented the saw as a modern icon for the 20th century. It is one of a series of paintings of solitary objects he produced in the 1920s. Here the tool floats in a Cubist composition of flat, abstract planes. The elevation of mundane objects to artistic subjects appealed to modernists like Davis because it signaled a new means of working that was free of art historical associations.
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