Stuart Davis (1892-1964) was one of the major American painters of the 20th century, and this monograph sets out to shed new light on his work and on his conception of his art. Integrated into the text are many letters and archival documents which allow the artist to explain in his own words the ideas and emotions from which his work sprang. In addition to more familiar artistic influences such as European painting, Davis took a good deal of his inspiration from the jazz clubs which he frequented, and the book takes account of his formative response to African-American music - how it reshaped his understanding of what art could be, and altered his personal interpretation of modernism.