Skip to main content
Mural for U.N. Conference Room 3
Mural for U.N. Conference Room 3

Mural for U.N. Conference Room 3

Stuart Davis (American, 1892–1964)
1955
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions71.44 x 178.43 cm (28 1/8 x 70 1/4 in.)
Credit LineGift of the William H. Lane Foundation
Accession number1983.383
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPaintings
Description
Stuart Davis made this canvas for his entry in a competition to design a mural for the United Nations building in New York City. Construction on the building had been completed in 1950, but campaigns to decorate the interior spaces with murals, tapestries, and other art continued through the decade, with contributions solicited from member nations. To select works for spaces set aside for the United States by the building's architect, Wallace K. Harrison, and U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld In the United States, the National Council for United States Art was formed.  A jury of artists acting for the Council selected two finalists-Davis and Jacob Lawrence-from ten invited competitors. But designs were never implemented, apparently due to the National Council's inability to raise the $60,000 necessary to complete the work. As Davis described it, "the thing never materialized….that's a mural that didn't get muralized." In his design, Davis limited himself to red, white, blue, and black, setting up a pulsating rhythm among these colors. A critic at the time described it as a "calligraphic-like winding line incorporating the letters 'U.N.'… somewhat suggestive of sky writing," an interpretation that Davis rejected (and in fact, this element appears in other Davis works produced prior to the U.N. mural competition, including the MFA's "Medium Still Life," [1990.396] which features both a similar snaking line and crossed 'x').  Some critics worried that the design, when enlarged to full size, "might well look very like a highway billboard." Their fears were not baseless, for Davis used advertising, along with other experience of urban life, including the bold graphics and typography of consumer packaging and the sound of jazz music, as inspiration for his abstractions. The finished mural would have been fourteen feet high and thirty-five feet long, as confirmed by the scale of 2" to 1' inscribed on the back of canvas. A Davis abstraction would have seemed like an appropriate choice for the new building and a precedent existed.  Murals designed by French artist Fernand Léger-an artist influential on Davis's early development-were installed in the General Assembly building in 1952, where they can still be seen.  A board of art advisors, chaired by the building's architect, Wallace K. Harrison, indicated the suitability of abstract designs for expressing the ideals of the United Nations.  "The very forms and relationships of abstract patterns are, in purely visual terms, communicative of human perceptions and human knowledge," capable of addressing the "collective efforts of men better than a contrived and deliberate attempt to portray 'the spirit of the United Nations'." Despite the fact that the mural was never realized, Davis exhibited this painting frequently in the years after its completion. Cody Hartley
InscriptionsUpper right: Stuart Davis; Reverse: MURAL for U.N. CONFERENCE ROOM 3 SCALE 2" to 1' STUART DAVIS 1955/15 W. 67 ST./NYC 23ProvenanceNovember 23, 1956, sold by Downtown Gallery, New York (stock no. 97), to the William H. Lane Foundation, Leominster, MA [see note 1]; 1983, gift of the William H. Lane Foundation to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 14, 1983)

NOTES:
[1] Archives of American Art, Downtown Gallery Records, Series 4, Business Records: Sales Slips (2 of 2), 1956: Reel 5628 (Box 72), Frame 733 (as dated 1956).

Copyright© Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Hillside Near Gloucester
Stuart Davis
about 1915
Autumn Landscape
Stuart Davis
about 1915
Egg Beater #3
Stuart Davis
1927–28
Adit, No. 2
Stuart Davis
1928
Gloucester Street
Stuart Davis
1916
Medium Still Life
Stuart Davis
1953
Morning Sunlight
Charles Harold Davis
about 1895
Seacoast
Francis Davis Millet
1880s
Forsaken Homestead
Charles Harold Davis
about 1890
Summer Twilight
Charles Harold Davis
about 1892
Pastures in May
Charles Harold Davis
1898