Swing Landscape: Stuart Davis and the Modernist Mural

Stuart Davis' Swing Landscape is a mural for the Williamsburg Houses, commissioned by the Works Progress Administrations Federal Art Project in 1936. This study explores the painting, one of the greatest of twentieth-century America and arguably Davis' most ambitious work, and contextualizes it within 1930s abstract mural painting in New York. It also offers the first comprehensive look at the Williamsburg mural commission.

Format: Hardback
Length: 164 pages
Publication date: 04 September 2020
Publisher: Yale University Press

In 1936, the Works Progress Administrations Federal Art Project commissioned Stuart Davis (1892-1964) to create a mural for the Williamsburg Houses, a New York City housing project. Despite never being installed in its intended location, Swing Landscape remains an impressive testament to Davis' vibrant, abstract style and the progressive politics that inspired it. This study delves into the painting, considered one of the greatest works of twentieth-century America and arguably the most ambitious of Davis' career.

This book challenges the conventional notion of separating Davis' leftist activism from his art, placing Swing Landscape within the context of abstract mural painting in New York during the 1930s. It emphasizes the political dimensions of abstraction and provides a comprehensive examination of the Williamsburg mural commission, which featured works by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Ilya Bolotowsky, and others. As a result, this book emerges as an essential resource on interwar modernism, mural painting, and urban development.

Published in association with the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Swing Landscape will be on display at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, from February 5 to May 22, 2022.

Weight: 1144g
Dimension: 288 x 249 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300250671