Modernism in America 

Stuart Davis (1892-1964) was encouraged to pursue a career as an artist by his parents, who were also artists.  He trained in New York with Robert Henri and John Sloan.  At twenty years old, he was the youngest artist to be included in the famous Armory Show of 1913, which introduced European Modern Masters.

As with other artists of his generation, Davis's encounter with European Modernist paintings in the Armory Show had a decisive effect on his development.  He soon rejected his urban realist style, choosing to represent the urban energy of the city in the form of flat patterns.  Seeking inspiration from the everyday, he began to include word fragments and product labels, such as those for Lucky Strike cigarettes into his compositions.

His initial training with Robert Henri had encouraged an acute sensitivity to his environment.  Direct visual stimuli would always be fundamental to his method of painting.  Conversion to Modernism did not result in Davis's reputation of his realist heritage, but made him aware of autonomous character in a work of art.  "The act of painting" he later maintained, " is not a duplication of experience, but the extension of experience on the plane of formal invention."

The above painting was done with a palette knife by Sanchia Lin at the oil painting workshop with Mr. Lee Kim.   Mr. Lee Kim is a graduate of UCLA, and worked as an industrial and technical artist.  Presently he teaches at El Camino College and Palos Verdes  Art Center.