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Hot Beat by Gene Davis / American Art
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Hot Beat

1964 Gene Davis Born: Washington, District of Columbia 1920 Died: Washington, District of Columbia 1985 acrylic on canvas 45 5/8 x 50 1/4 in. (115.9 x 127.6 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the Woodward Foundation 1976.108.33 Smithsonian American Art Museum
4th Floor, Luce Foundation Center



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Hot Beat



"It seemed to feel right, as we entered the sixties, to have color that leaped right off the wall, that almost assaulted you. I wanted the painting to attract attention and be noticed. It's almost as if I wanted to shout, rather than to whisper." The artist, quoted in Naifeh, Gene Davis, 1982


Gene Davis worked mostly with vertical stripes because he felt that horizontal stripes "carry the illusion of landscape," and he didn't want his paintings to represent anything except themselves. Between 1962 and 1969, he painted lines of uniform width so that nothing would distract the eye from his vibrant color combinations. (Naifeh, Gene Davis, 1982) Here, the edges between the stripes blur as our eyes struggle to cope with the dramatic contrasts. Certain hues, such as the whites toward the center and the acid greens near the edge, jump forward, but eventually all of the stripes appear to drift in and out of focus as if moving in time to gentle music. Davis never planned his compositions more than a few stripes ahead and instead improvised like a musician, letting each color inspire the next.

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.


Keywords

Abstract - geometric

painting

paint - acrylic - liquitex

fabric - canvas

About Gene Davis

Born: Washington, District of Columbia 1920 Died: Washington, District of Columbia 1985

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