Ronald Davis has for forty
years been at the forefront of American art. From the time he
emerged upon the west coast art scene in the 1960s, creating
paintings from industrial resins, his work has demonstrated his
genius for depicting spatial relationships. Subsequently, his
creativity roamed from electronic music to highly complex computer
art. This exhibition, however, features seldom seen acrylic abstractions
from the 1980s. Among his most passionate and intensely personal
works, the eight paintings that make up this show comprise a
dazzling universe of color and light.
— David Witt, Curator
The Music Series represents an “outside the
box” departure from my trademark perspective illusionistic
works of the 1960s and ‘70s. Even though the prior work contained
painterly and expressionistic elements, I felt trapped inside the
boxes of time and space. With the Music Series, I returned to my
roots as an Abstract Expressionist, pouring out my accumulated
knowledge of the activity of making paintings. I ask you to judge
this body of work as paintings, and to let the art part take care
of itself. They are, in no small measure, a reaction to the fickle
and difficult art world of the 1970s and ‘80s. They are,
too, an homage to my heroes: painter Jackson Pollock, composer
Charles Ives, and instrument builder Don Buchla. They were painted
with my heart, and not with my intellect.
— Ronald Davis, November 2004
Tom Collins Review in the
Albuquerque Journal, December 17, 2005 during the show Ronald
Davis: Music Series: 1983-85 at the Harwood Museum of Art,
Taos, New Mexico in December 2004.
Elizabeth Cook-Romero Review of
the Harwood exhibition of the Music Series,
"Magnetic North, Far From the Buzz," The Santa Fe New Mexican
| Pasatiempo
Music Series
Paintings included in the exhibition:
1. Nova Comet,
1983 80 x 66 inches, acrylic on canvas
2. Cursor,
1984 29 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches, acrylic on canvas
3. Chord,
1984 114 x 184 5/8 inches, acrylic on canvas
4. Frequency
Modulation, 1984 80 x 93 1/8 inches, acrylic on
canvas
5. Instrument,
1984 90 x 57 1/2 inches, acrylic on canvas
6. Spectral,
1984 88 5/8 x 68 5/8 inches, acrylic on canvas
7. Dolce,
1984 90 x 57 1/2 inches, acrylic on canvas
8. Theramin,
1985 96 x 66 inches, acrylic on canvas |