Stuart Davis, Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors—7th Avenue Style, 1940
Jazz is a Black art form, but it has influenced Black and white artists alike. One of those white artists, Stuart Davis, immersed himself in jazz culture while living in New York’s Greenwich Village, where many other artists—like Davis’s friend Beauford Delaney—shared similar passions. In Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors—7th Avenue Style, Davis uses abstract modernist styles and bold colors to capture the spontaneity and energy of jazz in paint. Expressive shapes emulate movement across the canvas, suggesting music, dancing, and wonder.