Davis, Stuart

Davis, Stuart (1894-1964), pioneer American abstract painter. He was the first American to assimilate modern developments in French art—particularly Cubism and the machinelike stylizations of the French painter Fernand Léger—and transform them into a fresh, distinctively American style. His early experiments in abstraction culminated in a series of works (1927-1928) in which he painted nothing but an eggbeater, an electric fan, and a rubber glove. After 1930, his paintings featured brilliant colours and a restless rhythm inspired by his love of jazz. His style, which sometimes incorporated words or bits of recognizable objects into his paintings, was a precursor of the Pop Art of the 1960s.