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Stripes

  • Gene Davis, Stripes, 1957, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Florence Coulson Davis, 1996.104.30

Luce Center Label

This painting was one of Gene Davis’s earliest experiments with stripes, a form that he returned to many times during his career. During the 1950s, he joined in the abstract expressionist fever and created canvases covered with spontaneous, dynamic brushstrokes. He used stripes as a way of playing with color, applying bold strokes of paint rapidly to a dark, roughly brushed background. These dramatic lines evoke ribbons that have been pinned to the top of the canvas, their tails fluttering freely in the air.

Luce Object Quote

“Far from being narrow and confining, [the stripe] has an astonishing potential for breadth and complexity.” Davis, 1967, quoted in Naifeh, Gene Davis, 1982

Title
Stripes
Artist
Gene Davis
Date
1957
Location
  1. Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. Luce Foundation Center
  3. 4th Floor
  4. 43B
Dimensions
34 x 24 in. (86.4 x 61.0 cm.)
Copyright
Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Bequest of Florence Coulson Davis

Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Painting
Keywords
  • Abstract
Object Number
1996.104.30
Palette
Linked Open Data URI

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