Gene Davis Art
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.(Biography provided by Georgetown Frame Shoppe)
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Artist: Gene Davis
Royal Curtain
By Gene Davis
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Gene Davis
Title: Royal Curtain
Medium: Screenprint on Arches paper
Date: 1980
Edition: 188/250
Frame Size: 35" x 26 1/2"
Sheet Size: 29 3/4" x 21 3/4"
Signature: Hand signed...
Category
1980s Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Banjo, Minimalist Stripe Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis, American (1920 - 1985)
Title: Banjo
Year: 1981
Medium: Lithograph on Arches Paper, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Size: 21.25 x 28.5 in. (53.98 x 7...
Category
1980s Color-Field Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Green Giant, Minimalist Print by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis
Title: Green Giant
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches, signed and numbered in pencil verso
Edition: 250
Paper Size: 26 x 28.5 inches
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Royal Curtain, Minimalist silkscreen by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis, American (1920 - 1985)
Title: Royal Curtain
Year: 1980
Medium: Silkscreen in Colors on Arches, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Paper Size: 29.75 x 21....
Category
1980s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Ferris Wheel
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis
Title: Ferris Wheel
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches Paper, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Image Size: 18 x 25.5 in...
Category
1980s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Witch Doctor: abstract modern minimalist color field drawing with rainbow colors
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
Vibrant magenta, yellow, orange, brown, purple, lime green, jungle green, dark green, cerulean, and sky-blue lines take on the organic quality of handmade paper, resulting in this su...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Homage to Barnett Newman /// Gene Davis Abstract Geometric Minimal Screenprint
By Gene Davis
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Gene Davis (American, 1920-1985)
Title: "Homage to Barnett Newman"
*Signed and dated by Davis in pencil lower right
Year: 1979
Medium: Original Screenprint on unbranded soft-...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Ferris Wheel: abstract modern minimalist color field drawing with rainbow colors
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
This geometric, minimalist print glows in rainbow shades. Vibrant raspberry pink, magenta, yellow, lime green, and sky-blue lines take on the organic quality of handmade paper, resul...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Royal Curtain /// Gene Davis Contemporary Abstract Geometric Expressionist Art
By Gene Davis
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Gene Davis (American, 1920-1985)
Title: "Royal Curtain"
*Signed by Davis in pencil lower right
Year: 1980
Medium: Original Screenprint on Arches paper
Limited edition: 250, (the number may differ from what is shown in the photos)
Printer: Alpha Omega...
Category
1980s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Home Run: abstract modern minimalist color field drawing with rainbow colors
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
Rainbow shades shine in this abstract, color field print. Vibrant red, yellow, orange, purple, and green lines take on the organic quality of handmade paper, resulting in this subtle...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Royal Curtain, Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Gene Davis (1920-1985)
Title: Royal Curtain
Year: 1980
Medium: Silkscreen on Arches paper
Edition: 41/250, plus proofs
Size: 30 x 21.5 inches
Condition: Good
Inscription: Sig...
Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Shooting Star, Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Gene Davis (1920-1985)
Title: Shooting Star
Year: 1979
Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper
Edition: 202/250, plus proofs
Size: 37.25 x 37 inches
Condition: Good
Inscription: S...
Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Sonata, Minimalist Stripe Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis, American (1920 - 1985)
Title: Sonata
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper, signed and numbered in pencil, verso
Edition: 250
Paper Size: 20.75 x 28.5 inc...
Category
1980s Minimalist Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Untitled (Yellow, Gray and Pink)
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Yellow, Gray and Pink)
Pastel on paper, 1981
Signed and dated lower right
Condition: Excellent
Sheet size: 12 x 18 inches
Frame size: 15 x 21 inches
Provenance: Jan Cowles
...
Category
1980s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Pastel
Banjo, Abstract Minimalist Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Gene Davis’s captivating Color Field compositions of vertical lines and evolving color is demonstrated in this print. Alternating from blue to yellow and then red, the vertical strip...
Category
1980s Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Carousel, Minimalist Stripe Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis
Title: Carousel
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches Paper, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Image 13.5 x 20 inches
Paper Size: 17 x 24 inches
Category
1980s Color-Field Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Green Giant, Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Gene Davis (1920-1985)
Title: Giant Green
Year: 1980
Medium: Silkscreen on Arches paper
Edition: 43/250, plus proofs
Size: 29.75 x 32.5 inches
Condition: Good
Inscription: Si...
Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Royal Curtain 1980 Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
By Gene Davis
Located in Rochester Hills, MI
Gene Davis
Royal Curtain - 1980
Print - Silkscreen, on Arches archival paper 30'' x 22'' inches
Edition: signed in pencil and marked 180/250
Unframed
Known for his dazzling and ...
Category
1980s Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Sonata, Minimalist Stripe Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis, American (1920 - 1985)
Title: Sonata
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper, signed and numbered in pencil, verso
Edition: 250
Paper Size: 20.75 x 28.5 inc...
Category
1980s Minimalist Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Narcissus Gene Davis minimalist abstract color field lithography with blue
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
Vertical lines in muted colors take on the organic quality of handmade paper, resulting in this subtle iteration of Gene Davis’ iconic color field stripe paintings. The title "Narcis...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Lilac, Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Gene Davis (1920-1985)
Title: Lilac
Year: 1980
Medium: Silkscreen on Arches paper
Edition: 247/250, plus proofs
Size: 22.5 x 28.5 inches
Condition: Good
Inscription: Signed a...
Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Yellow Jack, Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Gene Davis (1920-1985)
Title: Yellow Jack
Year: 1979
Medium: Silkscreen on Arches paper
Edition: 241/250, plus proofs
Size: 22.5 x 25 inches
Condition: Excellent
Inscription:...
Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Untitled (Purple and Yellow)
By Gene Davis
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Purple and Yellow)
Pastel on paper, 1981
Signed and dated lower right
Provenance:
Collection of Jan Cowles
Jan Cowles was married to Gardner Cowles owner of Cowles Media Company (1935–1998) which owned newspapers, magazines and information publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The company operated Cowles Business Media, Cowles Creative Publishing, and Cowles Enthusiast Media units.
Owners of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune from 1935 to 1998, other newspapers owned at one time by Cowles Media and its affiliates included the Des Moines Register, the Buffalo Courier...
Category
1980s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Pastel
Tightrope: abstract modern minimalist color field drawing with rainbow colors
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
Rainbow shades shine in delicate clusters of vertical lines, in this abstract, geometric lithograph. Vibrant yellow, green, magenta pink, blue and brown take on the organic quality o...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Gene Davis, Blackwatch III, Op Art Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
A large, minimalist stripe print entitled "Black Watch III" by American Color Field artist, Gene Davis. The print is signed and numbered in pencil a...
Category
1970s Minimalist Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
GENE DAVIS Untitled 1983 Colorfield Painting canvas Blue Red Black White Yellow
By Gene Davis
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
GENE DAVIS
Untitled Colorfield Composition in Blue, Red, Black, White & Yellow
1983
Acrylic painting on canvas
Provenance: Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY
Signed & Dated verso
Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Gene Davis Art
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Lilac, Minimalist Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis
Title: Lilac
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Paper Size: 21.75 x 30 inches
Category
1980s Minimalist Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Adam's Rib, Minimalist Stripe Lithograph by Gene Davis
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis
Title: Adam's Rib
Year: 1980
Medium: Lithograph on Arches Paper, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Size: 19 x 27 in. (48.26 x 68.58 cm)
Category
1980s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Lithograph
Shooting Star 1979 Large Signed Screen Print
By Gene Davis
Located in Rochester Hills, MI
Shooting Star - 1979
Print - Silkscreen 36.5'' x 36.75''
Edition: Signed in pencil, dated and marked 238/250
Unframed
Category
1970s Color-Field Gene Davis Art
Materials
Screen
Homage to Barnett Newman
By Gene Davis
Located in New York, NY
A very good impression of this color screenprint on white wove paper. Signed and numbered 248/250 in pencil by Davis. Based on a series of oil paintings made by Davis, completed afte...
Category
1970s Color-Field Gene Davis Art
Materials
Color, Screen
Yankee Doodle /// Gene Davis Abstract Geometric Huge Screenprint Colorful Modern
By Gene Davis
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Gene Davis (American, 1920-1985)
Title: "Yankee Doodle"
*Signed and numbered by Davis in pencil lower right
Year: 1972
Medium: Original Screenprint on wove paper, laid down t...
Category
1970s Abstract Gene Davis Art
Materials
Canvas, Screen
Sky Cycle
By Gene Davis
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gene Davis, American (1920 - 1985)
Title: Sky Cycle
Year: 1978
Medium: Oil on Raw Canvas, signed and dated verso
Size: 47 x 33 in. (119.38 x 83.82 cm)
Frame Size: 49 x 35 i...
Category
1970s Minimalist Gene Davis Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Gene Davis art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Gene Davis art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, orange, pink and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Gene Davis in lithograph, screen print, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Gene Davis art, so small editions measuring 16 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Raymond Parker, Mark Tobey, and Melissa Meyer. Gene Davis art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $960 and tops out at $60,000, while the average work can sell for $2,500.
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Questions About Gene Davis Art
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