Saw, Stuart Davis, 1923, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art
In this painting, Stuart Davis presented the saw as a modern icon for the 20th century. It is one of a series of paintings of solitary objects he produced in the 1920s. Here the tool floats in a Cubist composition of flat, abstract planes. The elevation of mundane objects to artistic subjects appealed to modernists like Davis because it signaled a new means of working that was free of art historical associations. Through prior gift of William Wrigley
Size: 94 × 55.9 cm (37 × 22 in.)
Medium: Oil on canvas
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/71529/