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Artworks
Stuart Davis American, 1892-1964
Detail Study for "Cliché", 1955Gouache on paper12¾ x 15 inches
32.4 x 38.1 cmSigned at lower center: Stuart DavisThe present gouache on paper relates to numerous works by Stuart Davis including Cliché (1955; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) and Ready-to-Wear (1955, Art Institute of Chicago). In 1957,...The present gouache on paper relates to numerous works by Stuart Davis including Cliché (1955; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) and Ready-to-Wear (1955, Art Institute of Chicago). In 1957, Davis created a lithograph after this work. In 1964, the lithograph was slightly modified with the inscription added, “To the Fine Arts,” and the image won a national postage stamp competition in honor of the fine arts and became the first “abstract” stamp in the United States.[1] Affixed to the backing board is a commemorative postcard with four of the stamps postmarked with the issue date, December 2, 1964.
[1] Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, Vol II, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007, p. 691.
Provenance
The artist; to
[Downtown Gallery, New York];
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Brown, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1956;
[Barbara Mathes Gallery, Inc., New York];
The Regis Collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1979;
[James Maroney, Inc., New York, 1984];
Private collection, New York;
[Middendorf Gallery, Washington, D.C.];
Southwestern Bell Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri, 1986;
[Martha Parrish & James Reinish, Inc., New York]; to
Lawrence J. Lasser, Boston, Massachusetts, 2004;
[Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York]; to
Private collection, until the present
Exhibitions
Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, California, Contemporary American Painters, 1950-1955 (First Annual Purchase Awards Exhibition sponsored by the Committee for Art at Stanford), April 15-May 20, 1956, no. 13
The Downtown Gallery, New York, Stuart Davis: Exhibition of Recent Paintings, 1954-1956, November 6-December 1, 1956, no. 13
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; San Francisco Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Stuart Davis, March 30-November 17, 1957, no. 44
National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Art Galleries, University of California at Los Angeles, Stuart Davis Memorial Exhibition, 1894-1964, May 28-November 28, 1965, no. 100, as Detail Study #1 for “Cliché”
Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Stuart Davis: The Formative Years, 1910-1930, March 31-September 25, 1983, no. 40 addendum, exhibited at St. Paul only, as Detail Study #1 for “Cliché”
Middendorf Gallery, Washington, D.C., Stuart Davis, January 16-February 8, 1986, no. 1, as Detail Study #1 for Cliché
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, In Full Swing: The Art of Stuart Davis, June 30, 2016-January 8, 2018Literature
H. H. Arnason, Stuart Davis, Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1957, no. 44, illus. p. 43
Alfred Frankenstein, “A Davis Retrospective and the Dutch Moderns,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 18, 1957, sec. TW (This World), illus. p. 23
David Lidman, “The World of Stamps: Abstract Design Slated for the Fine Arts Issue,” New York Times, September 20, 1964, sec. 2, p. 27, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
“This is the design . . .” (photo caption), Milwaukee Journal, September 20, 1964, sec. 1, p. 15, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
David Lidman, “Art on Stamps: Museums and Fine Collections Offer More and More Philatelic Subjects,” New York Times, November 15, 1964, sec. 2, p. 31, reference to postage stamp only
“A New U.S. Stamp,” American Artist 28, no. 10, December 1964, p. 8, reference to postage stamp only, includes illus.
Ted Knap, “Abstract Art Paints New Postal Stamp Era,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 2, 1964, p. 37, reference to postage stamp only
“New Fine Arts Stamp is Unveiled,” New York Times, December 3, 1964, sec. 1, p. 24, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
Ernest A. Kehr, “Stamp News: ‘A Melange of Squiggles,’” New York Herald Tribune, December 6, 1964, sec. 4, p. 8, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
Susanna McBee, “Feelings Run High around Nation about That Abstract Art Stamp,” Washington Post, December 15, 1964, sec. A, p. 3, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
Alvin Shuster, “Stamps for Art’s Sake: A New U.S. Stamp Dedicated to the Arts Is Also a Departure in the Art of Stamp Design–But Will Everybody Like It?” New York Times Magazine, December 20, 1964, p. 30, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
"'Fine Arts Stamp' excerpts from a speech by Postmaster General John A. Gronouski at the dedication of the Fine Arts Stamp at the National Gallery of Art", Town Tatler, Washington, D.C., December 25, 1964, pp. 26-27, reference to postage stamp only
H. H. Arnason, Stuart Davis: Memorial Exhibition, 1894-1964, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1965, p. 42, as Detail Study #1 for “Cliché”
“A Salute to the Fine Arts and Stuart Davis,” Artist’s Proof, Pratt Graphic Art Center, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, vol 5, 1965, no. 2, pp. 2-4, reference to postage stamp only, illus. p. 2, related print, color illus. p. 3, postage stamp
Darío Suro, “Stuart Davis, 1894-1964: Abstract Art on a Postage Stamp,” Américas, Pan American Union, Washington, D.C., 17, no. 1, January 1965, p. 30, reference to postage stamp only, illus.
David Lidman, “Stamps: Art Is Theme of National Show,” New York Times, November 13, 1966, sec. 2, p. 29, reference to postage stamp only
“Art on Stamps ASDA Theme: Famous Paintings Employed in Designing Stamp Prime Topic of New York Show,” Linn’s Weekly Stamp News 39, no. 38, November 14, 1966, p. 1, reference to postage stamp only
Betsy Fahlman et al., American Images: The SBC Collection of Twentieth-Century American Art, New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with Southwestern Bell, 1996, p. 13, illus. fig. 3, as Detail Study #1 for Cliché
An American Gallery: Volume VIII, New York: Richard York Gallery, 1997, n.p., no. 41, illus., as Detail Study #1 for “Cliché”
Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. II, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 690-91, no. 1301, illus. p. 690
Harry Cooper et al., Stuart Davis: In Full Swing, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2016, no. 64, illus. p. 1242of 2
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