<p>Gene Davis
c.1964
Vincent Melzac Collection
Washington Color School
This is the Agency’s only work by Gene Davis, one of the most noted of the Washington Color School artists.  In a conscious effort to “purify” his work, he reduced painting to the fewest possible elements, that of equal-width stripes.  He felt that this matrix allowed him to emphasize color orchestration, saying: “I paint by eye as a jazz musician plays by ear.”  The stripes, like a drummer’s beat, provide the unity through which colors interact.  Such a painting cannot be grasped all at once: Davis suggested that the viewer follow one color across the composition, seeing how the intervals work, what the rhythms are like between related colors.  He described it as a kind of syncopation.  A Washington native, Davis was a sports writer and a White House correspondent before he dropped that career to become a painter.
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For more information on CIA history and this painting please visit <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cia.gov">www.cia.gov</a>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/59094030@N08">The Central Intelligence Agency</a>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciagov/7375546586/">Black Rhythm</a>