Stuart Davis
Bull Durham
1920
Scroll
Stuart Davis
Bull Durham
1920
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Framed: 36 x 21 1/4 x 1 3/4 in. (91.4 x 54 x 4.4 cm) Unframed: 30 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (76.8 x 38.7 cm)
Credit Line
Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection
Object Number
1952.208
This collage-like painting mimics the packaging associated with “Bull” Durham, an American tobacco brand popular in the early 20th century. The sprinkle of color at the bottom right evokes loose tobacco being poured into a cigarette paper. “1917” refers to both tobacco tax legislation of that year and America’s
entrance into World War I (1914–1918). With the rush to send tobacco to overseas soldiers, the “Bull” cigarette became an instant symbol of patriotism despite the brand’s marketing tactics, which were at times overtly racist in their depictions of Black Americans.
Here, Stuart Davis appropriated the brand’s medallion and adopted the style and subdued palette of European Analytic Cubism, which championed representing objects from several different points of view simultaneously. With these techniques, Davis merged artistic form and commercial content to explore
everyday American consumerism.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, "Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America", January 23 - March 25, 1951.
Goucher College, Towson, MD, "Arts Festival", April 25 - May 9, 1956
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 'Tobacco and Smoking in Art', October 14-December 4, 1960, no. 35, ill. p. 125.
National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. 'Stuart Davis Memorial Exhibition', May 28 - July 5, 1965, no. 17, ill. p. 60, circulated to: Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art, University of California at Los Angeles Art Gallery - through December 1965
International Art Program, National COllection of Fine Art, 'Stuart Davis', January 1-July 21, 1966, no. 6, circulated to Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Amerika Haus, Berlin; American Embassy, London
Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection', May 11 - June 22, 1969
The Brooklyn Museum, 'Stuart Davis: Art and Art Theory', January 21 - March 19, 1978, no. 7, curculated to Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, through May 1978.
Baltimore Museum of Art, 'American Painting 1900-1930', September 2-October 29, 1978.
National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., 'Stuart Davis', May 22 - September 7, 1998
Darsie Alexander, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Mechanical Form/Mechanical Vision,' December 12, 2001-April 7, 2002.
BMA, "American Modernism from the Collection," June 25, 2003-
Whitney Museum of American Art, "In Full Swing: The Art of Stuart Davis," June 10 - September 25, 2016, National Gallery of Art, November 20, 2016-March 5, 2017.
Goucher College, Towson, MD, "Arts Festival", April 25 - May 9, 1956
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 'Tobacco and Smoking in Art', October 14-December 4, 1960, no. 35, ill. p. 125.
National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. 'Stuart Davis Memorial Exhibition', May 28 - July 5, 1965, no. 17, ill. p. 60, circulated to: Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art, University of California at Los Angeles Art Gallery - through December 1965
International Art Program, National COllection of Fine Art, 'Stuart Davis', January 1-July 21, 1966, no. 6, circulated to Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Amerika Haus, Berlin; American Embassy, London
Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection', May 11 - June 22, 1969
The Brooklyn Museum, 'Stuart Davis: Art and Art Theory', January 21 - March 19, 1978, no. 7, curculated to Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, through May 1978.
Baltimore Museum of Art, 'American Painting 1900-1930', September 2-October 29, 1978.
National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., 'Stuart Davis', May 22 - September 7, 1998
Darsie Alexander, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Mechanical Form/Mechanical Vision,' December 12, 2001-April 7, 2002.
BMA, "American Modernism from the Collection," June 25, 2003-
Whitney Museum of American Art, "In Full Swing: The Art of Stuart Davis," June 10 - September 25, 2016, National Gallery of Art, November 20, 2016-March 5, 2017.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection. [Baltimore, MD]: Baltimore Museum of Art, [1964], page 28.
John R. Lane, 'Stuart Davis: Art and Art Theory', Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Museum, 1978, no. 7, p. 204, p.94, ill. p. 95
William C. Agee, 'Stuart Davis: The Breakthrough Years, 1922-1924', New York: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., 1987 (exh. cat. 11/4/1987 - 12/26/1987), fig. 2.
Barbara Zabel, 'Stuart Davis's Appropriation of Advertising: The Tobacco Series, 1921-1924', American Art, Autumn, 1991, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 56-67
Philip Rylands, 'Stuart Davis', 1997, p. 98-99
Kelder, Diane. 'Stuart Davis: Art and Theory, 1920 - 31,' New York: Pierpoint Morgan Library, 2002. pp. 4 ill.
Mariea Caudill Dennison, 'Burlington Magazine: Stuart Davis: standard brands and product identities in some paintings of the 1920s', 2003, ill.
Barbara Zabel, 'Assembling Art: THe Machine and the American Avant-Garde,' Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004. pp.64, ill.
Cooper, Harry and Barbara Haskell, "Stuart Davis In Full Swing," Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2016, pp.60, ill.
On View at the BMA
