With the belief that his work could influence the sociopolitical environment of America, Davis' political message was apparent in all of his pieces from the most abstract to the clearest.

[2] By the 1930s, Davis was already a famous American painter, but that did not save him from feeling the negative effects of the Great Depression, which led to his being one of the first artists to apply for the Federal Art Project.

[8][9] In the show, Davis was exposed to the works of a number of artists including Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

[8] After spending several years emulating artists in the Armory Show, Davis started moving toward a signature style with his 1919 Self-Portrait, in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Another practice was painting series, works with similar structures, but with altered colors or added geometric embellishments, essentially creating variations on a theme.

[11] In the 1930s, he became increasingly politically engaged; according to Cécile Whiting, Davis' goal was to "reconcile abstract art with Marxism and modern industrial society".

[12] Also in 1932, Davis executed a mural commission for Radio City Music Hall which the Rockefeller Center Art Committee named "Men Without Women" (after Ernest Hemingway's second collection of short stories completed the same year).

Henri did not look highly upon American art institutions at the time, which led to him joining John Sloan and six other anti-institutional artists (known as "the Eight") to put on an exhibit at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908.

Through his vocal rejection of academic norms in painting, Henri encouraged Davis and his other students to find new forms and ways to express their art and to draw on their daily lives for inspiration.

His time amongst the public caused him to develop a strong social conscience which was strengthened through his friendship with John Sloan, another anti-institutional artist.

Davis acquired an appreciation and knowledge of how to implement the formal and color advancements of European modernism, something Henri did not focus on, to his art.