Still Life Series

1973

The Still Life Series – cel-vinyl acrylic paintings on linen on board – followed the large, heroic resin and fiberglass paintings of the 1960s and the Cut Out Series of the early 1970s.

“…in 1973, Davis‘ medium was acrylic paint on conventional rectangular linen canvases. His subjects were once again illusionistic geometric solids. Now, however, these forms are lodged in depicted three-dimensional settings; tightly ordered, impeccably executed, they have opaque surfaces and no decoration other than brilliant color. These crisp, exercise-like images can be read as reductive still lifes in austerely barren surroundings or even as plans for some neo-classical, Ledoux-like ideal architectural project located in an abstract landscape.”  — Nancy Marmer, ArtForum, 1976

The Still Life Series – cel-vinyl acrylic paintings on linen on board – followed the large, heroic resin and fiberglass paintings of the 1960s and the Cut Out Series of the early 1970s.

“…in 1973, Davis‘ medium was acrylic paint on conventional rectangular linen canvases. His subjects were once again illusionistic geometric solids. Now, however, these forms are lodged in depicted three-dimensional settings; tightly ordered, impeccably executed, they have opaque surfaces and no decoration other than brilliant color. These crisp, exercise-like images can be read as reductive still lifes in austerely barren surroundings or even as plans for some neo-classical, Ledoux-like ideal architectural project located in an abstract landscape.”
— Nancy Marmer, ArtForum, 1976