Gene Davis: Hot Beat

Brightly colored stripes multiply in rhythmic repetitions across the surface of a painting by Gene Davis. Remarkably original when they first appeared in the 1960s, they became the signature expression for one of the leading Color Field painters. With no more than a rectangular canvas and multicolor stripes, Davis created a richly varied body of work that looks as fresh today as it did when it first was shown.

The large size of most of his canvases from the 1960s require a viewer to consider the relationships and rhythms over time, more like a musical composition than the dynamic, colorful, pop art images that emerged at the same time. This selection of fifteen classic striped paintings by Gene Davis from the 1960s reveals the ambitious vision and accomplishment of one of Washington, DC’s outstanding visual artists.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website