Angel Vine 1952

Curator: Look at this intriguing artwork from 1952, “Angel Vine” by Gene Davis. It’s an ink drawing. Editor: My initial thought? Organized chaos. A flurry of lines trying to escape the page, a botanical free-for-all! Curator: Absolutely. Notice how Davis uses line? It’s not just representational; it's performative. He’s exploring the very act of mark-making. There is this balance of organic shapes on the right side and chaotic clusters on the left. Editor: Yes, but how does the ink respond to its constraints here? It gives way to our need to feel that density as well as light are related, one depending on the other to come into view; light is lost within each shaded figure, revealing an essential core. Is the shadow empty and is this vine growing because there is some connection between being inside it and projecting oneself elsewhere. Curator: It feels almost like we’re peering into Davis’ sketchbook. These were his initial ideas jotted in visual language. They were experiments and ways to play on a theme using visual shorthand. You know he later turned towards fields of pure color. Editor: Precisely! This sketch is the precursor and seed from which the blossom can rise and shine to take shape later on a canvas; you almost want to put your hand on it. To reach in and fill out those spaces with pigment… The boldness is also what the minimalist structure asks for as the ink seems like a suggestion and is a path, always looking forward to that color, that field of emotion and pure essence that has not appeared just yet, it hides within each leaf. Curator: There is so much lightness to this art. It allows the subject of line and ink itself to transform into color with its own cadence. Editor: Yes, It is a beginning, and the medium seems to find a way, to push one towards new horizons… and that is where that genius bloomed into even more beautiful dimensions.