Smithsonian Resident Associates Program 1980 (15th Anniversary Poster) 1980

This poster, made by Gene Davis for the Smithsonian in 1980, vibrates with colour. I imagine him carefully laying down each stripe, one by one, thinking about those subtle shifts in hue and tone. It’s like a musical score, right? Each stripe a note, a pause, a beat. The solid maroon rectangle in the middle anchors the composition, giving your eyes a place to rest amidst the visual buzz of the stripes. Davis was part of that Washington Color School scene, obsessed with the pure, optical effects of colour. Think of Morris Louis pouring diluted paint onto canvas, or Kenneth Noland playing with chevrons and targets. They were all pushing the limits of what painting could be. There’s something so optimistic about this poster, so clean and joyful. It makes you think about all the possibilities that painting offers, all the ways we can see and feel the world anew. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, building on what came before and reaching for something more.