Swing Landscape
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Stuart Davis and the Modernist Mural
Jennifer McComas; With an essay by Jody Patterson
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Format: HardcoverPrice: $49.00
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An insightful study of the progressive politics animating a great work of modernist mural painting
In 1936 the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project commissioned Stuart Davis (1892–1964) to paint a mural for the Williamsburg Houses, a New York City housing project. Though the mural, Swing Landscape, was never installed in its intended location, it survives as an impressive testament to Davis’s energetic, colorful brand of abstraction and the progressive politics that animated it. This study explores the painting, one of the greatest of twentieth-century America and arguably Davis’s most ambitious work.
This book challenges the prevailing tendency to separate Davis’s leftist activism from his art and contextualizes Swing Landscape within 1930s abstract mural painting in New York, emphasizing the politics of abstraction. The book also offers the first comprehensive look at the Williamsburg mural commission, including works by Willem de Kooning, Ilya Bolotowsky, and others. The result is an indispensable resource on interwar modernism, mural painting, and urban development.
In 1936 the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project commissioned Stuart Davis (1892–1964) to paint a mural for the Williamsburg Houses, a New York City housing project. Though the mural, Swing Landscape, was never installed in its intended location, it survives as an impressive testament to Davis’s energetic, colorful brand of abstraction and the progressive politics that animated it. This study explores the painting, one of the greatest of twentieth-century America and arguably Davis’s most ambitious work.
This book challenges the prevailing tendency to separate Davis’s leftist activism from his art and contextualizes Swing Landscape within 1930s abstract mural painting in New York, emphasizing the politics of abstraction. The book also offers the first comprehensive look at the Williamsburg mural commission, including works by Willem de Kooning, Ilya Bolotowsky, and others. The result is an indispensable resource on interwar modernism, mural painting, and urban development.
Published in association with the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Exhibition Schedule:
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
(February 5–May 22, 2022)
(February 5–May 22, 2022)
Jennifer McComas is curator of European and American art at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University. Jody Patterson is associate professor and Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Chair of Art History at Ohio State University.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
(February 5–May 22, 2022)
(February 5–May 22, 2022)
Co-winner of the award for Outstanding Collection Catalogue, sponsored by the Midwest Art History Society
ISBN: 9780300250671
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
Publishing Partner: Published in association with the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
Publishing Partner: Published in association with the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
164 pages, 9 1/2 x 11
78 color + 63 b/w illus.
78 color + 63 b/w illus.
