Ronald Davis
Ronald Davis | |
|---|---|
 Ring,1968, 601⁄2× 134 inches,polyester resinandfiberglass,(Dodecagonseries),Museum of Modern Art,New York City | |
| Born | 1937 |
| Education | University of Wyoming,San Francisco Art Institute |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Abstract Expressionism,Geometric abstraction,Abstract Illusionism,Lyrical Abstraction,Hard-edge painting,Shaped canvaspainting,Color fieldpainting,Digital art,Digital paintingand 3D Computer Graphics |
| Awards | 1962 Yale-Norfolk Summer School Grantee |
Ronald"Ron"Davis(born 1937) is an American painter whose work is associated withgeometric abstraction,abstract illusionism,lyrical abstraction,[1][2]hard-edge painting,shaped canvaspainting,color fieldpainting, and 3D computer graphics. He is a veteran of nearly seventy solo exhibitions and hundreds of group exhibitions.
Life
[edit]Born inSanta Monica, California,he was raised inCheyenne, Wyoming.In 1955–56 he attended theUniversity of Wyoming.In 1959 at the age of 22 he became interested in painting. In 1960–64 he attended theSan Francisco Art Institute.Abstract expressionism,the prevailing artistic movement of the time, would have an influence on many of his future works. In 1962 he was a Yale-Norfolk Summer School Grantee. In 1963 his paintings becamehard-edged,geometricandopticalin style, and by 1964 his works were shown in important museums and galleries. He lived and worked inLos Angeles,1965–71, and inMalibu, California,1972–90. Since 1991 he has lived and worked inArroyo Hondoon the outskirts ofTaos, New Mexico.
Career
[edit]Ronald Davis from the earliest days of his career had a significant impact on contemporary abstract painting of the mid-1960s. According toart criticMichael Fried:
Ron Davis is a young California artist whose new paintings, recently shown at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York, are among the most significant produced anywhere during the past few years, and place him, along with Stella and Bannard, at the forefront of his generation.[3]
He had his first one-person exhibition at theNicholas Wilder GalleryinLos Angelesin 1965.[4]
Barbara Rosewrote an in depth essay about Davis' paintings of the 1960s in the catalogue accompanying an exhibition of hisDodecagonSeriesin 1989 inLos Angeles.Among other observations she wrote:
Davis saw a way to useDuchamp's perspective studies and transparent plane inThe Large Glassfor pictorial purposes. Instead of glass, he usedfiberglassto create a surface that was equally transparent and detached from any illusion of reality. Because his colored pigments are mixed into a fluid resin and harden quickly, multiple layers of color may be applied without becoming muddy. his is essentially an inversion ofOld Masterlayering and glazing except that color is applied behind rather than on top of the surface.
Alone among his contemporaries, Davis was equally concerned with traditional problems of painting: space, scale, detail, color relationships and illusions as he was with the California emphasis on hi-tech craft and industrial materials. How to reconcile the literal object produced with the latest technology with transcendental metaphor became the problem that occupied throughout the Sixties.[5]
In anArtforumarticle in 1970 artist/art criticWalter Darby Bannardcommented: "Though Davis is plagued by 'series' ideas, and has yet to get a grip on the inherent monumentality of his style, he is young and inspired, and these things will evolve naturally."[6]From 1966 to 1972, Ron Davis created geometric shaped, illusionistic paintings usingpolyester resinsand fiberglass. About Davis' paintings of the late 1960s in an essay accompanying the Ronald Davis retrospective exhibitionForty Years of Abstraction,at theButler Institute of American Artin 2002, the abstract painterRonnie Landfieldwrote: "the Dodecagons from 1968–69 remain among the most visually stunning, audacious and intellectually interesting bodies of work made by an abstract painter in the last half of the twentieth century."[7]
In 1966 Davis was an instructor at theUniversity of California, Irvine.Also in that year he had his first one-man exhibition at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery inNew York Cityand a solo exhibition atLeo Castelli Galleryin 1968.
His works are held in the collections of theMuseum of Modern ArtinNew York City,[8]theTate Gallery,London,[9]theLos Angeles County Museum of Artand theArt Institute of Chicagoand he has been awarded aNational Endowment for the Artsgrant. Since the 1990s, he has worked indigital paintinganddigital art.[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^Lyrical Abstraction,Exhibition Catalogue, theAldrich Contemporary Art Museum,Ridgefield, Conn. 1970.
- ^Lyrical Abstraction,Exhibition Catalogue,Whitney Museum of American Art,NYC, 1971.
- ^Fried (1967).
- ^1965 Nicholas Wilder Gallery
- ^Rose (1988).
- ^Bannard (1970).
- ^Landfield (2002).
- ^MoMA collection website
- ^Alley (1981).
- ^Jackson (2008).
Works cited
[edit]- Alley, Ronald (1981)."Ronald Davis".Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists.London: Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet. pp. 143–4.Retrieved2021-07-20– via Tate.org.uk.
- Bannard, Walter Darby (January 1970)."Notes on American Painting of the Sixties".Artforum.8(5): 40–45.Retrieved2021-07-20– via Irondavis.com.
- Fried, Michael (April 1967)."Ronald Davis: Surface and Illusion Artforum".Irondavis.com.5(8): 37–41, cover illus.:Six-Ninths Blue,1966.Retrieved2021-07-20.
- Jackson, Charlotte (2008)."Ronald Davis".CharlotteJackson.com.Charlotte Jackson Fine Art. Archived fromthe originalon 2012-10-12.
- Landfield, Ronnie (2002)."The Essence Of Abstraction".Irondavis.com.RetrievedMay 9,2008.
- Rose, Barbara (1988)."Ronald Davis: Objects and Illusions".Irondavis.com.RetrievedMay 9,2008.
Further reading
[edit] | This article includes a list of generalreferences,butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations.(July 2021) |
- Elderfield, John(March 1971). "New Paintings by Ron Davis".Artforum.9(7): 32–34.
- Goldberger, Paul(January 18, 1976). "Studied Slapdash".The New York Times Magazine:48–50.Photos and article on Ron Davis’ Studio.
- Hughes, Robert(December 1968). "Ron Davis at Kasmin".Studio International.176(906): 264–265.
- Kramer, Hilton(May 28, 1978). "The Return of Illusionism".The New York Times.p. 25.
- Marmer, Nancy (November 1976). "Ron Davis: Beyond Flatness".Artforum:34–37.
- Rose, Barbara(October 1967). "Abstract Illusionism".Artforum.
- Rose, Barbara (1969).American Painting. Part Two: The Twentieth Century.New York: Skira - Rizzoli. pp. 230, 234, color plate:Disk,1968.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- Ronald Davisin theNational Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler Collection
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1937 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American painters
- 20th-century American printmakers
- 21st-century American painters
- 21st-century American male artists
- American abstract painters
- American male painters
- Artists from New Mexico
- People from Taos County, New Mexico
- San Francisco Art Institute alumni
- University of Wyoming alumni
- 20th-century American male artists