Artist - Gene Davis

In trying to created a stronger relationship between my music and visual work, I have begun taking a more minimalist approach. Rather than drawing my music from images, which held too many variables, I am creating the image and music at the same time and am focusing on the relationships between each note and visual element. This approach has led me back to color fields. My imagery has become of simple color bars that are meant to directly relate to the music. I was certain that this type of imagery has been used before, though maybe not in the same context, so I went searching for an artist whose work is like this. I came across Gene Davis whose work is visually very similar. While Davis does have an interest in rhythm, he seems to focus more on the relationship between his colors. While I am also considering the color relationships, I am more focused on how the colors and bars relate to the music.

Davis is a color field painter and was a member of the 60's abstract art group, the Washington Color School. He was a teacher at the Corcoran School of Art, where is work is also part of their collection. He is one of the most prominent color field painters of his time and has work in such collections as the Guggenheim and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Gene Davis, Phantom Tattoo, dimensions, medium, date unknown

Black Aces, 1967
Acrylic on canvas

Gene Davis, Black Grey Beat, Acrylic on canvas, 1964

Davis' work has more variations in rhythm and color than mine. His work "Grey Black Beat"(last image above) references the musical in his work through the title. I feel like I am taking this a step further by actually trying to understand the relationship between the visual phenomena of sensing music, and hearing it. My color bars have less character, most of them are evenly spaced but I think this is a result of the simplicity I am aiming for, maybe I am working on something that is more of a study, but I want to understand fundamentals and build my own theories before going all out on a complex song or image. When I become more comfortable with how I related the music to the visuals, I expect to build more complex songs, resulting in more complex color bars or different forms.