1961

American Paintings and Sculpture


In Switchski's Syntax, Stuart Davis turned a tiny matchbox advertisement for Champion spark plugs into a heroic American still life. "Needless to say," Davis wrote, referring to a different painting that featured the same word, "the letters themselves in ‘Champion’ and the color and their arrangement have no identity with the source." The lines and shapes of the word, divorced from its original meaning, become the subject matter of the painting. The composition also features split elements, which blur the order of the painting's overlapping shapes by featuring the color of one form within the confines of another—as in the black-and-white circle straddling the green band at the lower left. Near the top of the letters, a strip of masking tape allowed Davis to test the addition of a black line before actually painting it on the canvas; ultimately, he decided not to remove the tape.

Medium

Casein and masking tape on canvas

Dimensions

42 × 56 in. (106.7 × 142.2 cm)

Credit Line

Katharine Ordway Fund

Accession Number

1980.84

Culture
Period

20th century

Classification
Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Harry Cooper and Barbara Haskell, Stuart Davis: In Full Swing, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2016), 141, fig. 80
  • Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, 3 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 453–55, no. 1727, fig. 1727
  • Lesley K. Baier, The Katharine Ordway Collection, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1983), 5, 84–86, 94, no. 16
Object copyright
Additional information

Subject

shapes

Signed

Title on back of stretcher is spelled; SWITCHSKI'S SYNTAX
It will appear in the Stuart Davis Catalogue Raisonne as such.
Sent photographs of the back of the stretcher to Ani Boyajian, who is co-authoring the catalog. Spring 2003.

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