Bridge 1952

Gene Davis made this drawing, Bridge, with what looks like red ink on a creamy paper, but there's no date. It feels like a doodle, maybe a sketch for a larger piece, something quick and playful. I love how the stark red lines pop against the textured background. Look closely, and you will see that this textured background is not a textured paper at all but an accumulation of small dots of white paint. The bridge itself is constructed of these bold geometric forms, like a language no one speaks. There’s such an interesting tension between the loose, almost scribbled lines of the bridge and the controlled, almost mechanical pattern of the ground. The way those red lines intersect and create these unexpected shapes is so striking, it reminds me a little bit of Hilma af Klint’s diagrams, but with a bit more raw energy. Art is such a cool conversation across time, isn’t it? It’s never really about answers, but about digging into these questions in new ways.