Sour Ball Beat 1964

Gene Davis made this striped painting, Sour Ball Beat, and well, just look at the beat of those colours! I can imagine the studio, maybe some jazz on the record player, as Davis rhythmically applied each stripe. There is a kind of pulsating energy, a bold vibrancy, in those vertical bands. See how the colours don’t quite sit comfortably together? It’s a little unsettling, like a slightly sour note in a melody. It feels like the colour pairings are designed to make you sit up and notice. Think about how the act of painting is like a form of visual thinking. Davis isn’t just decorating a surface, but actually working through an idea. It's a reminder that painting is always in dialogue, a vibrant conversation across generations.