Saw

1923

Stuart Davis (American, 1892–1964)

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.

Status: On View, Gallery 271
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Stuart Davis
Title: Saw
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1923
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed l.r.: Stuart Davis 1923
Dimensions: 94 × 55.9 cm (37 × 22 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior gift of William Wrigley
Reference Number: 1988.144

Lewis Kachur, “Stuart Davis,” Arts Magazine 55, 3 (November 1980) p. 2.
Hilton Kramer, “An American Cubist,” Art & Antiques (January 1988) p. 94.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 42.

Santa Fe, Museum of New Mexico, Fiesta Exhibition, Sept. 3–17, 1923.
New York, Borgenicht Gallery, Stuart Davis, Still Life paintings, 1922/24, Sept. 27–Oct. 23, 1980.
New York, Salander O’Reilly Galleries, Selections: Stuart davis Exhibition, Oct. 3–25, 1986, checklist, no. 8.
New York, Salander O’Reilly Galleries, Stuart Davis: The Breakthrough Years, Nov. 4–Dec. 26, 1987, cat. 21, as The Saw.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stuart Davis, American Painter, Nov. 23, 1991–Feb. 16, 1992; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mar. 26–June 7, 1992, cat. 51, as The Saw.

The artist; estate of the artist [Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1988.

Davis 1485

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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