Best known as one of the leading Washington Color Field painters of the 1960s and 1970s, Gene Davis (1920-1985) achieved recognition for his bold, colorful, rhythmic stripe paintings of the mid-1960s. His work of that time remains fresh and vital, and many younger artists now look to him as an important inspiration to their work.
In a 1981 interview, the artist recalled: "The idea of bands of color, hard-edged, bright color... Was like a breath of fresh air... . There was... A common denominator that went through the sixties. It was an exciting period. The Kennedy era, optimism was in the air, excitement, campus rebellion... You can't isolate any of it." The brilliant stripes painted with colour straight out of the tube convey the vitality of the time. The critic Donald Kuspit summarized Davis' achievement in these paintings as "that rare phenomenon in art as much as in life, a successful marriage of intense sense experience and logical clarity."
