Stuart Davis (1892-1964)
Stuart Davis (1892-1964)
Stuart Davis (1892-1964)
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Modern Icons: Property from an Important Private Collection
STUART DAVIS (1892-1964)

Final Study for Radio City Music Hall Mural

Details
STUART DAVIS (1892-1964)
Final Study for Radio City Music Hall Mural
signed 'Stuart Davis' (right center)
ink, crayon and pencil on paper
23 x 35 in. (58.4 x 88.9 cm.)
Executed in 1932.
Provenance
The artist.
Estate of the above.
Lawrence Rubin, New York.
Private collection, New York, acquired from the above, 1971.
James Reinish & Associates, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2017.
Literature
A. Boyajian, M. Rutkowski, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007, pp. 271-72, no. 561, illustrated.
D. D'Arcy, "The Art Show: When Contemporary Art is Uninspiring, Dealers Turn to History," Observer, March 2, 2017, illustrated.
"The 2017 ADAA Art Show," Maine Antique Digest, March 5, 2017, illustrated.
"Art: Stuart Davis...America's Jazz Painter," Arts & Food, January 10, 2018, illustrated.
Exhibited
(Probably) New York, The Downtown Gallery, Practical Manifestations in American Art, December 13-31, 1934 (as Ink Drawing for Mural in Smoking Room, Radio City Music Hall).
(Probably) New York, The Downtown Gallery, 1935 (as Ink Drawing for Mural in Smoking Room, Radio City Music Hall).
New York, Lawrence Rubin, Stuart Davis: Major Drawings on Canvas and Paper from 1928 to 1964, January 30-March 1, 1971, no. 11 (as Study for Radio City Music Hall).
New York, Zabriskie Gallery, Stuart Davis: Murals: An Exhibition of Related Studies, 1932-1957, January 27-February 14, 1976, no. 4 (as Study for a Mural).
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 20th-Century American Art from Friends' Collections, July 27-September 27, 1977.
Chicago, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art; Middlebury, Vermont, Middlebury College Museum of Art; San Antonio, Texas, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum; Miami, Florida, Center for the Fine Arts; Andover, Massachusetts, Phillips Academy, Addison Gallery of American Art; Omaha, Nebraska, Joslyn Art Museum; Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, The Drawings of Stuart Davis: The Amazing Continuity, December 12, 1992-July 1994, pp. 20, 97, no. 58 (as Study for Radio City Mural [Men Without Women]).
New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York Collects: Drawings and Watercolors, 1900-1950, May 20-August 29, 1999, pp. 254-55, no. 112, illustrated (as Presentation Drawing for Radio City Music Hall Mural [Men Without Women]).
New York, Barbara Mathes Gallery, Master Drawings New York, January 24-March 9, 2013.

Brought to you by

Tylee Abbott
Tylee Abbott Vice President, Head of American Art

Lot Essay

The present work is one of nine studies for Stuart Davis’ 1932 Mural (Radio City Men’s Lounge Mural: Men without Women) originally conceived for Radio City Music Hall and still installed in venue, although now under the ownership of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Davis was one of four artists commissioned to create a new work for Rockefeller Center, the new “skyscraper within a city” along with Henry Billings, Louis Bouche and Henry Varnum Poor.

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