This exquisite silkscreen by Stuart Davis (1892–1964), titled Untitled, originates from the landmark 1964 folio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters). Published by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, and printed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven, in Untitled, Davis channels the electric rhythm, chromatic punch, and graphic immediacy that define his mature style, merging modernist structure with a syncopated visual energy that mirrors the pulse of American urban life and jazz-inspired abstraction.
Executed as a silkscreen on Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper, this work measures 20 x 24 inches. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. Printed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven, one of the most capable American screenprinting ateliers of the mid-20th century.
Artwork Details:
Artist: Stuart Davis (1892–1964)
Title: Untitled, from X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), 1964
Medium: Silkscreen on Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper
Dimensions: 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 60.96 cm)
Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued
Date: 1964
Publisher: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford
Printer: Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., North Haven
Edition: D
Catalogue raisonne reference: Davis, Stuart, et al. Stuart Davis: Graphic Work and Related Paintings with a Catalogue Raisonne of the Prints. Edited by Jane Myers, Amon Carter Museum, 1986, illustration 79.
Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium
Provenance: From the 1964 folio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), published by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford
Notes:
Excerpted from the folio, This portfolio was commissioned and printed in an attempt to extend as much of the visual impact as possible of ten artists to paper and to make these prints available to collectors who might not otherwise have such a vivid slice of the artist. The dry surface of screening seemed to be most apt to translate the effect of their painting, both the flatness which is the unifying bond between the ten, and the insistance of paint on the surface of canvas so like the visible heft of ink on paper here. Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., Curator of Printings.
About the Publication:
X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), published in 1964 by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, stands as one of the most ambitious and influential printmaking endeavors of postwar American art. Conceived under the direction of curator Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., the project sought to capture and translate the defining visual languages of ten leading American painters of the era—Stuart Davis, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Adolph Gottlieb, George Ortman, Larry Poons, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein—into original silkscreens. Each artwork was created as an autonomous work that embodied the formal, chromatic, and conceptual principles of its respective artist. The choice of silkscreen printing, executed by Sirocco Screenprints, Inc., was central to the portfolio’s purpose: its dry, matte surface and capacity for crisp, saturated color allowed for a faithful translation of the painters’ flatness, surface tension, optical effects, and graphic precision. Organized and published by a major American museum at a moment of seismic change in contemporary art, X + X marked a turning point in institutional engagement with editioned works, representing one of the first concerted efforts by a museum to commission an ensemble of original graphics from the leading figures of its time. The portfolio captured the pulse of 1960s American painting—from Hard-Edge abstraction to Pop, Op, and Color Field—offering both a curated snapshot of artistic innovation and an accessible format that expanded the audience for contemporary art. Today, X + X is widely regarded as a landmark in American printmaking, celebrated for its curatorial vision, technical accomplishment, and its role in defining the dialogue between museum patronage and the burgeoning print culture of the 1960s.
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