Emma Lu Davis

Emma Lu Davis (also spelled Emma Lou Davis; 1905–1988) was an American sculptor, painter, and anthropologist.

Biography

Early life and education

Davis was born in Indianapolis on November 26, 1905. After graduating from Vassar College in 1927, she studied for three years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Career After leaving school, Davis spent three years as a freelancer working on a variety of commissions. In 1933 she spent six months studying modern techniques and design under Buckminster Fuller at the Dymaxion factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. for example, "Grotesque Bull" (shown), a terra cotta sculpture which was included in Dorothy Miller's "Americans 1942" exhibition at MoMA. Two years later she collaborated with Henry Kreis on a series of low-relief granite sculptures depicting the benefits of social security for the overdoor panels of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C. During World War II, Davis worked at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California as a draftsman and aircraft designer.

After practicing as a commercial artist for thirty years, Davis decided to retrain as an archaeologist. She completed her Ph.D. at UCLA in 1965, writing a dissertation titled Anasazi Mobility and Mesa Verde Migrations (1964). She worked Science Direction at the San Diego Museum of Man, while continuing her desert studies, focusing on the southern California region of China Lake. Prior to her retirement, she established the Great Basin Foundation, which conducted paleo-environmental research. According to Joseph L. Chartkoff, Davis was "one of the most important figures in bringing scientific rigor and credibility to Paleoindian archaeology in California."

Death and legacy Davis died in San Diego on October 19, 1988. The Permanent Collection—Women Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1970 Painting and Sculpture Changes 2011, Museum of Modern Art, 2011

Selected writings