Untitled 1964

This 'Untitled' painting is a great big color field of vertical stripes by Gene Davis, who passed away in 1985. You know, looking at it, I can almost feel him there, trying to figure out where each stripe should go. What’s so cool is that no two stripes are the same width or color. There's this kind of rhythm, like a visual jazz. The paint looks pretty thin, almost stained into the canvas. I imagine him just wanting the colors to vibrate against each other. I bet he was thinking about Barnett Newman and maybe even some of those Op Art guys, but he’s doing his own thing, making something really joyful and alive. It makes you realize that all us painters, we’re just bouncing ideas off each other across time, trying to figure out new ways to see and feel.