Flower Machine 1964

Gene Davis made *Flower Machine* with stripes of acrylic on canvas. I feel like I can see the joy in Davis’s process—he’s delighting in the simple act of placing color next to color. I can imagine him thinking about the way colors vibrate and sing with one another, like a musical chord, or in a visual rhythm. It feels like the kind of painting that comes together through trial and error, intuition, and feeling, rather than through the imposition of a rigid concept. What I love about painting, and what this painting shows so beautifully, is how the medium allows you to access pure sensation. The paint is thin here. The color does the work. With each stripe, the painting seems to shift and emerge anew. It reminds me a little of Bridget Riley, though Davis is doing something all his own. Artists are always in conversation, you know? They inspire one another. It’s never a solo act.