Gene Davis (b. 1920, United States; d. 1985, United States) 

Three Sisters, ca. 1982 
Acrylic on canvas 
 
Gene Davis and Kenneth Noland, both featured in this exhibition, were principal artists in what became known as ‘Color Field Painting.’ They were influenced in the 1950s by Helen Frankenthaler’s stained-canvas techniques, which represented a formal and conceptual integration of paint and ground, involving diluted acrylic paint being soaked into the threads of her canvases. Each of them experimented with their own versions of similar processes. The two paintings by Gene Davis in the exhibition display variations on compositions made up of thin lines of stained paint. In Three Sisters these lines are compartmentalized into three vertical sections, while in Monet’s Garden the entire surface is covered with these delicately stained lines. The precision and tight placement of these lines dialogue with how thread is positioned within weaving or embroidery.