Artist
Davis back from ‘exile’ with a celebration of shape
by
Mary Voelz Chandler
September
13, 2002
Stardom,
solitude, return: It's a frequent theme in contemporary life,
as the media machine can burn bright, then retreat, then many
years later again shine the high beams on an artist.
And
so it is Ronald Davis' turn. It's not that Davis ever really went
away; but the player in the art world of 1960s California left
the stage at some point, settling in an isolated outpost in northern
New Mexico. Those who knew his work from the old days, when he
worked in materials including resin and explored the arena of
mathematics and perception, will recognize the hand at work; for
everyone else, it's a surprise and a feast.
That's
because he's back, in a way, with a show of new work opening today
in the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery in the School of Art and Art
History at the University of Denver.
And
it is as if this space - an oddity with its long, seven-sided
configuration - were made for Davis' work, which through color,
line, dimension and form pushes the limit on how we see a piece
of art. It is hard-edge abstraction that moves beyond just one
edge, with three-dimensional objects that test how colors work
together, push apart and fool the eye.
Credit
here goes to the show's curator, Gwen Chanzit, senior lecturer
in modern art and museum studies at DU, as well as a curator in
the Denver Art Museum's modern and contemporary department.
In
one of those chance happenings that fuel the art world, Chanzit
met Davis last March during a symposium in Taos examining the
work and life of Agnes Martin. On a trip to his studio (several
trips, actually), Chanzit saw the potential in bringing Davis'
work to DU and Denver.
This
exhibition marks not only the beginning of the $250,000 endowment
funded by Victoria and Trygve Myhren for the gallery, but also
the remaking of the gallery lobby, thanks to a separate challenge
gift by the couple of $50,000. The lobby is cleaned up and opened
up, the gallery in good shape. |