Micro-Painting 1968

Gene Davis made this Micro-Painting at some unknown date with an unknown medium. Imagine Davis hunched over this tiny surface, maybe an old tile, coaxing it into being. It’s this muted lilac color, almost like it's blushing, and then there’s a very precise white line drawn across it. I wonder, was he thinking about Agnes Martin? Or maybe he was just playing, trying to see how little he could do. It feels like a study, like he’s asking, "What is the bare minimum?" The paint looks thin, almost like a wash, so you can see the texture of the surface underneath, like a memory of something else. He was a stripe painter and this miniature, which is barely a painting, is so charming! I like the way he worked serially, almost like he's in conversation with all the other stripe painters out there. He is asking: how can color be a language? Even when it's barely there.