by John D. Angeline
1. Reprinted in Kelder, Diane. Stuart Davis. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971, p. 7.
2. "Stuart Davis and Modernism: An Overview" in Stuart Davis: An American Painter, ed. Lowery Stokes Sims. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, p. 24
3. Stuart Davis: An American in Paris.
4. The Societe Anonyme's Brooklyn Exhibition: Katherine Dreier
5. Davis referred to this work years later in a 1926 biographical
sketch in the following way: "Executed one of the first ~modernistic~
interior decorations, since destroyed, for a modern cafeteria." (Letter
to Katherine Dreier, October 1926).
6. Collection of the Societe Anonyme: Museum of Modern Art 1920, p. xv.
7. The Society of Independent Artists Exhibition contained 2,500 works
by 1,200 artists from 38 states and countries. The Brooklyn Museum
show, a more carefully selected affair, contained 308 works by 106
artists from 23 countries. Therefore, even though its size was
smaller, the geographic range is almost equally as broad, and
considering that the Brooklyn show was largely due to the efforts of
one woman and the 1917 exhibition was run by a committee and basically
unrestricted, the Brooklyn show represents a far more herculean effort.
8. According to Bohan, the "telemuseum" was fabricated too late for inclusion in the Brooklyn Museum but was installed in the Anderson Galleries part of the show.
9. Letter to Dreier, Sept. 25,1926. Courtesy Societe Anonyme/Dreier Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
10. Letter to Davis, Sept 29, 1926. Courtesy Societe Anonyme/Dreier Papers, Beinecke Liberia, Yale University.
11. Letter to Davis, October 13, 1926. Courtesy Societe Anonyme/Dreier Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
12. Letter to Dreier, April 5, 1927. Courtesy Societe Anonyme/Dreier Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
13. Letter to Dreier, April 15, 1927. Courtesy Societe Anonyme/Dreier Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
14. Letter from Lissitzky to Dreier, July 26, 1926. Courtesy Societe Anonyme/Dreier Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
15. Chan-Magonedov, S.O. "A New Style in Three-Dimensional Suprematism
and Prounen," p. 42.
16. Lissitzky-Kuppers, Sophie. El Lissitzky: Life, Letters, Texts.
17. Ibid., p. 21.
18. Lane, John. Stuart Davis: Art and Theory. Brooklyn: Brooklyn
Museum, 1978, p. 16.
19. Sweeney, James Johnson. Stuart Davis. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1945, p. 16.
20. "How to Construct a Modern Easel Painting," lecture given at New
School For Social Research, December 17, 1941.
21. Lissitzky, El. "Proun". De Stijl, June 1922.
22. Davis Sketchbook #9.
23. The Societe Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A
Catalogue Raisonne. New Haven: Yale University, 1984, p. 421.
24. This formation could also have a direct reference to a diagram that
Lissitzky employed in his 1925 essay "K. und Pangeometrie." The
diagram and accompanying text are used to discuss the subjectivity of
perspective and there is a sketch of a square with two intersecting
diagonals, leaving the question of whether or not the center point is
receding or advancing. It is unclear at this time whether or not
Dreier shared this essay with Davis but the similar effects either
suggest that she did or that Davis was even more in synch with
Lissitzky on a more intuitive level.
25. New York American, April 29, 1928.
26. "Davis Tames a Shrew." New York Times, April 29, 1928.
27. "Is There an American Art?"Creative Art 4 (Feb. 1930), p. 34-5.
28. "Becoming a Modern Artist: The 1920's" in Stuart Davis, American
Painter, note #19, p. 55
29. This was a show of Russian modernism, for which there is no
checklist. The 1924 exhibition is not being suggested to enforce
Lissitzky's influence on Davis but it can be used to suggest that a
painting like Super Table, although it predates the Brooklyn
exhibition, does not necessarily disprove the main thesis.
30. "Becoming a Modern Artist: The 1920's," p. 45.
31. "Is There an American Art," p. 35.
New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1987, p. 2.
and Modernism in America. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982, p.125.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1968, p. 11.