Color screenprint on white wove paper, 1979. 805x645 mm; 31 3/4x25 1/2 inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 248/250 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Homage to Barnett Newman is based on a series of oil paintings made by Davis (1920-1985) completed after the death of the artist Barnett Newman (1905-1970). According to the Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, D.C., which has represented the artist's estate since 1997, this series is "All characterized with split compositions of two subtly contrasting flat gray panels, a white stripe dividing the two and sharply contrasting thin stripes finishing the edges on each side. Gene Davis first saw the work of Barnett Newman in 1951 at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. Of the Newman influence, Gene Davis remarked on the 'quality of clarity that seemed absent in abstract expressionism' and 'his [Newman's] use of the free standing stripe'."
