Royal Canoe 1977

Gene Davis made this painting, Royal Canoe, with stripes, but when and where, I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s about process, and that process is all about color. The painting is made of vertical stripes. On one side, there are thick stripes of muted reds, yellows, and purples, and on the other side, thinner stripes of lighter colours. What is interesting is how a color acts in relation to others, how the eye can be fooled. I like the materiality of the piece, the way that the paint sits on the surface. Is it thick, is it thin? It’s hard to tell. But the artist's hand is there in the making of each stripe, just like Agnes Martin, the brushstrokes are visible and yet precise. They play tricks on the eye. There’s an ongoing conversation between the artist, the canvas, and us, the viewers. And in that conversation, there are no fixed meanings, just possibilities.