Page 41 - Studio International - November 1967

Gene Davis The term Washington colour painters is actually a GALLERY OF ART in Washington. His work involves an
Phantom tattoo 1966
misnomer; I have always felt somewhat dissatisfied with entirely different colour concept than mine, but it speaks
acrylic on unsized canvas
its application to me. In a broad sense, there are certain to me. I am also interested in the work of such painters as
10x 20 ft
affinities common to four or five Washington painters, the Larry Poons and Helen Frankenthaler, and in the recent
Fischbach Gallery, New York
most prominent of whom are Morris Louis and Kenneth work of Frank Stella. In other areas, I respond strongly to
Noland. There's no doubt that their use of unprimed the work of such artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Tony Smith,
canvas was a force in the development of the Washington and Carl Andre.
school; however, this label has obscured certain very
fundamental differences. Of course, some of the Wash- In your own work, has there been any diversion of interest
ington painters studied with Noland; my own develop- from stripe paintings since you began doing these in 1958 ?
ment as a so-called colour painter paralleled rather than Yes. I have also experimented with panel paintings
followed Louis and Noland. A close examination of my (shown at the POINDEXTER GALLERY in 1963) and with so-
stripe paintings of 1958 and 1959 would show an entirely called micro-paintings (shown at the JEFFERSON PLACE
different sensibility than that in the work of Louis or GALLERY in Washington in April 1967). Both of these
Noland of the same period. From the very beginning, my styles relate to the stripes. The panels, for example, are
stripe paintings were hard-edged; others moved more nothing but six individual panels, each painted in a dif-
gradually to a hard-edge concept. ferent flat colour; these were designed to be hung hori-
The presence of the now-defunct Washington Workshop zontally three inches apart. They are simply six related
of the Arts was important to the scene in the early 1950s; stripes, separated by the wall. From these one-colour
it was there that local painters had the opportunity to panels, I later developed the idea of reducing them
exchange views and occasionally see the work of the big considerably in size (most are less than two by three
New York artists. I especially remember a show of de inches) and placing one or two of them on an empty wall.
Kooning's women-paintings. I've already mentioned the It was simply a variation of my panel paintings of five
importance of Washington's Phillips Gallery as a shaping years earlier.
influence in my case.
What are your current preoccupations ?
Your primary interest in painting is colour. Who among While the record might suggest otherwise, I am not
contemporary painters do you respond to ? wedded to stripes as a format. So long as it says what I
Strange as it may sound, I was especially impressed with want, I will explore this approach. However, I might
the recent Jules Olitski retrospective at the CORCORAN be off in another direction tomorrow. I can't say.