Yukon Sonata 1981

Gene Davis made this painting, Yukon Sonata, with acrylic on canvas sometime in the 20th century. I like how the colour palette is used here to show, rather than tell, the possibilities of an intuitive process. The physical presence of this piece is so compelling. It’s a pretty large painting, over 6 feet high, and over 7 feet wide. The paint looks evenly distributed across the canvas, with tight vertical lines side by side filling each panel. It’s like looking at a close up of corduroy. I wonder how the artist did this? Were the lines masked out in some way, or were they all made freehand? If you get up close you can see tiny imperfections. This painting, to me, shows that art is more about the journey than the destination. This piece reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, another master of subtle, meditative abstraction. Both artists invite us to slow down and contemplate the beauty of simplicity and repetition. It’s a reminder that ambiguity is not a weakness, but a source of endless possibility.