Word: artfully
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...under the influence of European post-Impressionists and cubists. Indeed the first two rooms of paintings strongly echo Picasso, Gris and Leger. Davis, as the chronology points out, was heavily involved in artists organizations, especially during the Depression, and campaigned for recognition of the political and social importance of art and artists. After the Depression, Davis developed some of his most important theories and settled into a style using brilliant colors, well-defined shapes and scattered words and numbers that the chronology describes as the "height of his career...
Unfortunately, the Fogg show indicates that eager students of theory can not be satisfied by the Fogg show without the aid of the show's catalogue or a Faculty member from the Fine Arts department. Perhaps theory can only be explained in books and classrooms, but if this is true, it is hard to see how art like Davis's, which is built on careful study of color and space and interrelationships between the two, can ever win a popular following. People who do not have the time and expertise to wade through lenthy and obscure explanations of theory will...
...hints about the theory behind Davis's art are given in the chronology of Davis's life at the start of the show and in the pages from some of Davis's unpublished studies of theory that are displayed as art objects. But the hints are as frustratingly vague as they are tantalizingly interesting. In a study for his work "Reconditioned Eggbeaters," Davis scrawls, "Only a Marc is a Noun. Only an Operative Scar is a Noun. Art exists as a Syntax of Scars." Pages from one of his studies of color begin to explore the relationships between different colors...
Ignoring the theory behind it, Davis's work holds up better in the eyes of the uninitiated than some other abstract art of the past 50 years because Davis usually gives the viewer a little piece of reality to hang on to--a word or a number slipped in among patches of color, or a form that distinctly resembles a human being. These touches are somehow reassuring to those who prefer traditional portrait and landscape art; Davis uses the reassurance to persuade viewers to move further into his art and enjoy the clever play of lines and shapes without worrying...
Standing alone, Davis's works are fun. In the context of his art theory, they pose perplexing but mind-teasing problems. The Fogg show is undeniably well-put-together and definitely worth a visit, but it disappoints if its goal is to explain how a modern artist like Davis comes to paint what he does...