Limelight/Sounds of Grass 1960

Gene Davis made "Limelight/Sounds of Grass" with acrylic on canvas. The very essence of this painting lies in its material simplicity: just stripes of color on a flat surface. But look closer and you see slight variations, barely perceptible irregularities in the lines. Davis clearly didn’t rely on masking tape or other industrial processes. He wanted the touch of the hand to be evident. The artist's choice of acrylic paint is telling; a distinctly twentieth-century medium, allowing for vibrant, quick-drying color. Davis found his inspiration not in traditional craft techniques, but in the mass-produced materials of modern life. Yet there’s a handmade quality here, a subtle defiance of the machine-made aesthetic. The time involved in painting these many stripes is considerable, it becomes a testament to the value of simple, repetitive work. Paying attention to materials, process and context allows us to appreciate "Limelight/Sounds of Grass" not just as an exercise in color, but as a statement about labor, value, and the handmade within an increasingly industrialized world.