Arboretum by Flashbulb by Stuart Davis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 2008

Artist: Stuart Davis (American, 1892–1964)

Title: Arboretum by Flashbulb

Date: 1942

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: H. 18, W. 36 inches (45.7 x 91.4 cm.)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection, Bequest of Edith Abrahamson Lowenthal, 1991

Accession Number: 1992.24.2


Description

This composition embodies the syncopated rhythms of American jazz and the dynamism of modern life. Working with a limited palette of just five colors, plus black and white, the artist produced a tour-de-force of patterns, shapes, color combinations, and spatial ambiguities. Abstracted almost beyond recognition, the image is based on a garden, momentarily illuminated by the yellow-and-red light of a camera flash.

Text from:
www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/modern...