Pink Stripe 1960

This is "Pink Stripe" by Gene Davis, made with acrylic on canvas. Looking at these straight vertical lines, you might think, "Oh, that looks easy!" But try it! It’s much harder than it looks to get such clean edges and consistent color, and I would argue that it’s the subtle imperfections in these that bring the painting to life. These stripes of blue and green feel like they're pulsing, moving, almost vibrating against one another. The colors are intense, but it’s the scale and the repetition that make it so engaging, like a musical score. And then there's that vertical bar of pink at the side - it's not just an addition, it’s like the whole painting exhales because of it. Davis was a master of color relationships, and you can see a similar interest in the way that Agnes Martin used grids and subtle color variations to create paintings that are both minimal and deeply emotional. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always need to be complicated to be profound.