Royal Curtain 1980

Gene Davis made this 'Royal Curtain' painting with vertical stripes, maybe sometime in the 60s or 70s, and I'm guessing he used acrylic paint. It's pretty simple, but the longer you look, the more the colours start to vibrate. There's this pale peachy stripe on the right, and the way it sits next to that cool blue makes both colours pop. It's like they're dancing together, doing the twist. The surface is smooth, so he probably used tape to get those clean lines. It makes me think of Agnes Martin, but way more groovy. The stripes let you see how artmaking can be both planned and spontaneous. There's an order, but the colours keep it loose and kind of unpredictable. I love how he wasn't afraid to just let the colours hang out next to each other and do their thing. It's kind of like a colour conversation, where everyone gets a turn to speak.