Gene Davis Paintings
American, 1920-1985
Davis was born in Washington D.C. in 1920 and spent nearly all his life there. Before he began to paint in 1949, he worked as a sportswriter, covering the Washington Football Team and other local teams. Working as a journalist in the late 1940s, he covered the Roosevelt and Truman presidential administrations, and was often President Truman's partner for poker games. His first art studio was in his apartment on Scott Circle; later he worked out of a studio on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Davis's first solo exhibition of drawings was at the Dupont Theater Gallery in 1952, and his first exhibition of paintings was at Catholic University in 1953. A decade later he participated in the "Washington Color Painters" exhibit at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington, DC, which traveled to other venues around the US, and launched the recognition of the Washington Color School as a regional movement in which Davis was a central figure. The Washington painters were among the most prominent of the mid-century color field painters. Though, he worked in a variety of media and styles, including ink, oil, acrylic, video, and collage, Davis is best known by far for his acrylic paintings (mostly on canvas) of colorful vertical stripes, which he began to paint in 1958. The paintings typically repeat particular colors to create a sense of rhythm and repetition with variations. One of the best-known of his paintings, "Black Grey Beat" (1964), owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum reinforces these musical comparisons in its title. The pairs of alternating black and grey stripes are repeated across the canvas, and recognizable even as other colors are substituted for black and grey, and returned to even as the repetition of dark and light pairs is here and there broken by sharply contrasting colors.
In 1972 Davis created Franklin's Footpath, which was at the time the world's largest artwork, by painting colorful stripes on the street in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the world's largest painting, Niagara (43,680 square feet), in a parking lot in Lewiston, NY. His "micro-paintings", at the other extreme, were as small as 3/8 of an inch square.
For a public work in a different medium altogether, he designed the color patterns of the "Solar Wall," a set of tubes filled with dyed water and backlit by fluorescent lights, at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Davis began teaching in 1966 at the Corcoran School of Art, where he became a permanent member of the faculty. His works are in the collections of, among others, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
He died on April 6, 1985 in Washington, DC.to
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Artist: Gene Davis
Batman Painting, Graphite and Acrylic on Raw Canvas, Mid-20th Century
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
Gene Davis (1920-1985)
American, Washington, D.C.
“Batman” 1975
Graphite and acrylic on raw canvas
Signed on reverse: Gene Davis 1975 Batman
Davis is known primarily for the stripe...
Category
Mid-20th Century Gene Davis Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic, Graphite
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Original work on paper by Washington Color School artist Gene Davis (1920-1985). Signed bottom left and dedicated to "Patti". Work has been archival framed. Unframed the work measur...
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Lunar Sand Box
By Gene Davis
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
PROVENANCE: Max Protetch Gallery, Wshington, D.C.;
Private Collection, Washington D.C.
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Framed
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Sky Cycle
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Artist: Gene Davis, American (1920 - 1985)
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Year: 1978
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Gene Davis paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Gene Davis paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Gene Davis in canvas, fabric, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the minimalist style. Not every interior allows for large Gene Davis paintings, so small editions measuring 16 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Yvette Cohen, Jan Maarten Voskuil, and Clifford Singer. Gene Davis paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $12,000 and tops out at $60,000, while the average work can sell for $36,000.