The Shining Sands: Artists in Newlyn and St. Ives 1880-1930

The pleasure of peeking over an artist's shoulder, watching intimate thoughts and random sketches take shape, is one satisfaction to be gained from these sketchbooks. Davis, whose semiabstract paintings are landmarks of modern art, spent extended stays in Gloucester, Mass., in 193233, drawing wharfs and boats. His underlying concern was what makes a good picture, and his answer had to do with how the artist selects accidental combinations from nature, how space is captured and defined. Three original sketchbooks are combined under one cover and reproduced in facsimile down to the most minute details, even to the front-cover label (""Property of Stuart Davis'') bearing the artist's signature and handwritten address. These seascapes, interlocking shapes and geometric doodles, accompanied by pages of notes, may be of slight artistic value, but artists, students and scholars will find them of interest. (March 25)