Hand pipes, also commonly known as spoon pipes or bowl pipes, refer to compact smoking devices designed for manual handling while lighting up smoking blends. Tracing back through centuries, the earliest origins of hand pipes lie in ceremonial tobacco or herbal smoke usage across diverse global cultures – from Native Americans to African tribes, Middle Eastern hookahs to Asian opium pipes – long before glassmaking advances brought forth modern versatile iterations. Continue reading The Art and Evolution of Hand Pipes: A Journey Through Time and Design→
Stuart Davis typically painted local modern subjects in rhythmic compositions with bold colors. Among his sources of inspiration were “skyscraper architecture; the brilliant colors on gasoline stations; chain store fronts and taxi cabs“ and jazz music. Long before postwar artists mined the world of trademark brands, Davis incorporated imagery from logos, commercial signage, and packaging into his paintings, such as the branded bag of tobacco in Lucky Strike (1921). Championed by the visionary dealer Edith Halpert at her downtown Gallery, Davis’s work was met with both enthusiasm and confusion despite being engaged with the stuff and forms of modern life in New York in the 1920s.
Photographed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
