Influenced by the Cubist language of flat, overlapping planes and wedges, Davis used geometric shapes in related colors to create this still life. Here, he deconstructs the cylindrical forms of a mass-produced, percolator coffeepot and renders the everyday object both abstract and identifiable. By choosing an industrially produced consumer product as his subject, Davis put a new spin on the spatial innovations of the previous decade’s European avant-garde art movements.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Percolator
Artist:Stuart Davis (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1892–1964 New York)
Date:1927
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:36 × 29 in. (91.4 × 73.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1956
Object Number:56.195
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Stuart Davis '27; signed, dated and inscribed (verso, in black marker on stretcher): Stuart Davis Aug. 22, 1927 "Contemporary DESIGN"
the artist, New York (1927–56; sold through the Downtown Gallery, New York to MMA)
New York. Downtown Gallery. "Stuart Davis and Frank Osborn," November 26–December 9, 1927, checklist no. 3.
New York. Valentine Gallery. "Exhibition–Paintings and Water Colors: Glenn Coleman and Stuart Davis," April 12–May 12, 1928, brochure no. 2.
Fort Worth. The Fine Arts Building, Texas Christian University. "The Ninth Annual Fine Arts Festival," December 4–11, 1949.
Washington, D. C. Corcoran Gallery of Art. "The New Tradition: Modern Americans Before 1940," April 27–June 2, 1963, no. 22.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. "Stuart Davis," February 15–March 14, 1966, no. 12 (dated 1928).
Berlin. Amerika Haus. "Stuart Davis, 1894-1964," April 23–May 21, 1966, no. 19 (dated 1928).
London. American Embassy. "Stuart Davis, 1894-1964," June 7–24, 1966, no. 19 (dated 1928).
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Cedar Rapids Art Center. "American Still-Life Painting, 1913–1967," October 6–27, 1968, no. 5.
Binghamton, N.Y. Roberson Memorial Center. "American Still-Life Painting, 1913–1967," November 10–December 1, 1967, no. 5.
Knoxville, Tenn. The Dulin Gallery of Art. "American Still-Life Painting, 1913–1967," September 20–October 10, 1968, no. 5.
College Park, Md. University of Maryland. "American Still-Life Painting, 1913–1967," October 24–November 14, 1968, no. 5.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Treasures from the Metropolitan," October 25, 1970–January 3, 1971, no. 40.
Newark Museum. "Niles Spencer: Friends and Influences," June 30–September 4, 1972, no catalogue.
The University of Texas at Austin Art Museum. "Not So Long Ago: Art of the 1920s in Europe and America," October 15–December 17, 1972, unnumbered cat. (p. 32).
San Juan. El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. "Arte del Siglo Veinte: EE.UU. del Museo Metropolitano de Arte," April 19–May 31, 1974, no. 14.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Representations of America," December 15, 1977–February 15, 1978, no catalogue.
Leningrad. State Hermitage Museum. "Representations of America," March 15–May 15, 1978, no catalogue.
Minsk, Belarus. Palace of Art. "Representations of America," June 15–August 15, 1978, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "14 Americans," July 16, 1990–January 2, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting: 1905–1950," April 19–October 7, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stuart Davis: American Painter," November 23, 1991–February 16, 1992, no. 63.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Stuart Davis: American Painter," March 26–June 7, 1992, no. 63.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Still Life: 1915–1950," February 1, 1995–January 28, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Stuart Davis: In Full Swing," June 10–September 25, 2016, no. 13.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Stuart Davis: In Full Swing," November 20, 2016–March 5, 2017, no. 13.
E [dward]. A [lden]. J [ewell]. "Davis Tames A Shrew: How What Seemed 'Abstract' Proved 'Realistic'–Glenn Coleman and Picabia." New York Times (April 29, 1928), p. XX18.
Carlyle Burrows. "News and Exhibitions of the Week in Art." New York Herald Tribune (April 29, 1928), sec. 7, p. 10.
Elliot Paul. "Stuart Davis, American Painter." Transition 14 (Fall 1928), ill. p. 151.
"Notes on Art and Artists." Fort Worth Texas Morning Star Telegram (December 4, 1949), calls it "Contemporary Design," and notes that it was lent by the Downtown Gallery.
Rudi Blesh. Stuart Davis. New York, 1960, pp. 50, 58, fig. 19, notes that "Owh! In San Paõ" (1951, Whitney Museum of American Art, Ref. Boyajian and Rutkoski 2007, no. 1664) is an expanded version of this work that also features the words "used" and "now".
Allen S. Weller. ART USA NOW. Ed. Lee Nordness. New York, 1963, vol. 1, p. 70, calls it "Percolater" and dates it to 1928.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 145–46, ill.
H. H. Arnason inStuart Davis Memorial Exhibition. Exh. cat., National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C., 1965, pp. 20, 35–36, calls it "Percolator," "Percolator of Contemporary Design," and "Percolator of Modern Design".
Michel-Louis Cosnil. "Stuart Davis: Rétrospective au Musée d'art moderne." Information et documents no. 225 (March 1, 1966), p. 42–43, ill., erroneously dates it 1928.
H. H. Arnason (MOD) inStuart Davis, 1894-1964. Exh. cat., American Embassy, London. London, 1966, unpaginated, no. 19, calls it "Percolator" and "Percolator of Contemporary Design".
William H. Gerdts. American Still-Life Painting, 1913-1967. Exh. cat., Cedar Rapids Art Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. New York, 1967, unpaginated, fig. 5.
Leo Lerman. The Museum: One Hundred Years and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1969, ill. p. 333.
David Mannweiler. "Museum Opener is 'Metropolitan' Show." Indianapolis News (September 19, 1970), p. 9.
Sam Hunter and John Jacobus. American Art of the 20th Century: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York, 1973, fig. 354.
Henry Geldzahler. Arte del Siglo Veinte: EE.UU. del Museo Metropolitano de Arte/ Twentieth-Century Art: U.S.A. from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. San Juan, 1974, p. 41, no. 14, ill.
Roberta Smith. "Stuart Davis, Picture-Builder." Art in America 64 (September–October 1976), p. 85, ill., notes that this is one of the artist's first works whose basic structure and compositional elements are reused in later paintings.
John R. Lane. Stuart Davis: Art and Art Theory. Exh. cat., The Brooklyn Museum. New York, 1978, pp. 81, 103, 105, 168, ill. p. 83.
Diane Kelder. "Stuart Davis: Pragmatist of American Modernism." Art Journal 39 (Autumn 1979), p. 33, fig. 10.
Patterson Sims. Stuart Davis: A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1980, pp. 19, 26–27, ill.
Abraham A. Davidson. Early American Modernist Painting, 1910–1935. New York, 1981, p. 259, pl. 149 (reversed).
William H. Gerdts. Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801–1939. Columbia, Mo., 1981, p. 256.
Carol Troyen inThe Lane Collection: 20th-Century Paintings in the American Tradition. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1983, p. 38.
Peter Conrad. The Art of the City: Views and Versions of New York. New York, 1984, p. 125.
Patterson Sims. Whitney Museum of American Art: Selected Works from the Permanent Collection. New York, 1985, p. 92.
William C. Agee inStuart Davis (1892-1964): Black and White. Exh. cat., Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc. New York, 1985, unpaginated (entry for no. 14, "Drawing for Percolator").
Diane Kelder. "Stuart Davis: Methodology and Imagery." Stuart Davis: Graphic Work and Related Paintings with a Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints. Ed. Jane Myers. Fort Worth, Tex., 1986, p. 6.
Karen Wilkin. Stuart Davis. New York, 1987, pp. 82, 99, 101, 104, 106, 108, 171, 194, 200, 202, colorpl. 101.
Patterson Sims inAmerican Mastery: Eight Artists in the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1987, p. 23.
Lowery Stokes Sims in Lowery Stokes Sims. Stuart Davis: American Painter. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1991, pp. 176, 181–83, 233, 276, no. 63, ill. (color).
Roberta Smith. "Steadfast Crusader for Modernism." New York Times (November 22, 1991), p. C32.
Diane Kelder in Lowery Stokes Sims. Stuart Davis: American Painter. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1991, p. 24.
Karen Wilkin in Lowery Stokes Sims. Stuart Davis: American Painter. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1991, p. 52.
William Wilson. Stuart Davis's Abstract Argot. San Francisco, 1993, n.p., colorpl. 10.
Patricia Hills. Stuart Davis. New York, 1996, pp. 21, 76–78, 142, pl. 62.
Joseph Ablow. "Stuart Davis and All That Jazz: 'Stuart Davis' by Patricia Hills." Bostonia (Winter 1996-1997), pp. 74–75, ill. p. 73 (color).
Diane Kelder inStuart Davis. Ed. Philip Rylands. Exh. cat., Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Milan, 1997, p. 160, ill.
Holland Cotter. "Stuart Davis 'Major Later Paintings'." New York Times (April 19, 2002), p. E36.
Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski, ed. Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. 3, Catalogue Entries 1324–1749. New Haven, 2007, pp. 164–66, no. 1517, ill. (color).
Ani Boyajian inStuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski. Vol. 1, Essays and References. New Haven, 2007, ill. p. 161 (color).
Mary Birmingham. Dynamic Impulse: The Drawings of Stuart Davis. Exh. cat., Hollis Taggart Galleries. New York, 2007, p. 16, fig. 6.
Karen Wilkin inStuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski. Vol. 1, Essays and References. New Haven, 2007, p. 70.
William C. Agee inStuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski. Vol. 1, Essays and References. New Haven, Conn., 2007, pp. 73, 101.
Karen Wilkin inAmerican Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, and Their Circle, 1927-1942. Exh. cat., Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy. Andover, Mass., 2011, p. 53, fig. 8 (color).
Harry Cooper inStuart Davis: In Full Swing. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Washington, 2016, p. 37.
Barbara Haskell inStuart Davis: In Full Swing. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Washington, 2016, pp.165, 236, no. 13, ill. p. 69 (color).
Stuart Davis (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1892–1964 New York)
1939
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