Untitled 1976

This untitled work was made by Gene Davis, using pencil on paper. Davis is best known for his stripe paintings, often on a very large scale. Here, however, we see him working out the idea in miniature. The pencil strokes, so different from his confident use of the brush, show the labor involved in visualizing this geometry. It also makes visible the relation between the hard edge of industrial production and the subtle imperfections introduced by the hand. Consider how the pencil is held, the pressure applied, and the rhythm of the hand as it moves across the page. These marks can give a sense of Davis's thinking, his testing out of ideas. It bridges the gap between the monumentality of his finished works and the intimate scale of human touch. Davis transforms something mundane into something engaging.