Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50MS - 2011.

Matches

Artist Stuart Davis (American, 1894-1964)

Date1927

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions26 x 20 in. (66 x 50.8 cm)
Overall, Frame: 34 3/4 × 28 3/4 × 2 3/4 in. (88.3 × 73 × 7 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineBequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number89.48

Terms

Abstract
matches
White
Blue
Red
Gray
Salmon
Gold
Pink
Green
Brown
Orange
Black
Abstract
Cubism
New York

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas abstract painting in pink, light blue, bright green, rose, brown, gray, dark gray, light orange, and black. The shapes are angular and there is no variation of the hue within the shape - the color defines the shape. The large light orange/peach colored shape has black lines, arranged in such a way that it suggests the interior of a cube.

Label TextStuart Davis American, 1894–1964 Matches, 1927 Oil on canvas The inventive American modernist Stuart Davis created a series of abstract still lifes in the 1920s loosely based on the Cubist principles of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. As seen in Matches, he used geometric essentials—tightly compacted planes and flattened shapes—to give the impression of three-dimensional volumes. Look at how the orange planes seemingly expand into a boxlike form and then collapse back into two dimensions. While the painting’s title may leave you looking for matchbooks, Davis insisted that his real subject was the optical pleasure of abstraction itself. As he said, “The subject…is an invented series of planes which are interesting to the artist.” Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 89.48