Poured Lines: Light Violet, Green, Blue, Red, Violet 1995

Ian Davenport made Poured Lines with various paints sometime after 1966. It's a process-based painting, where he lets gravity do a lot of the work; the different colors are poured from the top and allowed to run down the surface. What strikes me is the texture. The paint isn't applied with a brush, but poured, so the surface has a kind of topographical quality. Look closely, and you can see where the different colors interact. Some lines merge, creating new shades, while others remain distinct, almost like individual threads in a tapestry. There's a real sense of physicality to the medium, almost as if the paint has a life of its own, and the artist is just guiding its movements. It reminds me a little bit of Gerhard Richter’s squeegee paintings, where chance and control also play off each other. Ultimately, this piece is about the act of painting itself, where the destination is unknown. It shows that the most interesting art often embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations.