Voodoo

Gene Davis’s Voodoo and the Pulse of Color Field Painting

Few works in Gene Davis’s late oeuvre capture the tension between precision and spontaneity as vividly as Voodoo (1984). Created during a period when the artist was refining his signature vertical stripe compositions, this painting abandons the rigid symmetry of his earlier pieces in favor of a more dynamic, almost rhythmic irregularity. The title itself—Voodoo—hints at an undercurrent of mysticism, a departure from the purely optical focus of his 1960s canvases. Here, Davis doesn’t merely arrange color; he orchestrates it, using uneven band widths and unexpected chromatic shifts to evoke something closer to syncopation than static design.

The work emerged at a moment when Color Field painting was being reconsidered. By the mid-1980s, the movement’s initial radicalism had been absorbed into the art-world mainstream, and artists like Davis faced the challenge of keeping its principles vital. Voodoo responds by introducing a subtle chaos into the stripe format—a visual equivalent to the dissonant harmonies in jazz, a genre Davis admired. As the Smithsonian American Art Museum notes in its overview of his career, Davis’s later works often “played with perception in ways that defied the movement’s earlier dogma,” and this painting exemplifies that shift. The stripes here don’t just vibrate; they seem to breathe, expanding and contracting as the eye moves across the canvas.

Davis in the 1980s: Stripping Down to Build Up

By 1984, Gene Davis had spent over two decades as a central figure in the Washington Color School, a group that redefined abstract painting by emphasizing color as both subject and structure. Unlike his peers—Kenneth Noland’s targets or Morris Louis’s veils—Davis’s stripes became his trademark, a format he pushed to its limits. The 1980s marked a turning point. Where his 1960s works, like Black Grey Beat (1964), relied on mechanical precision, paintings such as Voodoo embrace a looser, more intuitive approach. The stripes here are hand-painted, their edges softening slightly, the intervals between them varying in ways that suggest a human pulse rather than a ruler’s edge.

This period also saw Davis engaging with larger cultural currents. The title Voodoo reflects his growing interest in non-Western traditions, particularly the syncretic religions of the Caribbean, which he encountered during travels in the late 1970s. The painting’s hypnotic repetition mirrors the rhythmic rituals of Vodou ceremonies, where color and movement induce altered states. As The Art Story observes, Davis’s late works often “blurred the line between optical abstraction and symbolic narrative,” a duality that Voodoo embodies. The canvas doesn’t just hang on the wall; it seems to hum, its stripes acting as both visual notes and coded messages.

Voodoo is Davis at his most paradoxical: a painting that feels both meticulously planned and spontaneously generated, its stripes acting like musical notation for an unseen composition.

The Making of Voodoo: Technique and Innovation

Composition: The Illusion of Movement

Davis’s stripes in Voodoo are deceptively simple. Unlike the uniform bands of his earlier works, these vary in width—some compressing into tight, almost vibrating lines, others expanding into broad fields of color. The effect is kinetic: the eye struggles to find a fixed point, instead tracing the stripes’ undulations like a needle on a record. This irregularity was achieved by masking the canvas with tape, then painting each stripe freehand, allowing for minor bleeding and imperfections. The result is a surface that feels alive, as if the stripes might shift when viewed from different angles.

Color: Chromatic Dissonance

The palette of Voodoo is equally deliberate. Davis avoids primary colors, opting instead for muted teals, ochres, and deep violets—hues that clash subtly rather than harmonize. This chromatic dissonance was a calculated risk. By placing complementary colors (like the greenish-blue and reddish-orange stripes) adjacent to one another, he creates a low-level optical flicker, a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast. The colors don’t blend; they compete, forcing the viewer’s retina to work overtime to resolve the tension.

Displaying Voodoo: A Statement for Modern Interiors

At 30×40 cm (12×16 inches), this framed print of Voodoo commands attention without overwhelming a space. Its vertical stripes make it ideal for narrow walls—flanking a fireplace, anchoring a hallway, or adding depth to a home office. The painting’s muted yet vibrant palette pairs best with neutral backdrops: think warm whites, soft grays, or even a deep charcoal wall to amplify the stripes’ luminosity. Avoid busy patterns nearby; Voodoo thrives as a solo focal point, its rhythmic lines playing against smooth, untextured surfaces like matte plaster or light wood paneling.

For lighting, opt for directional track or picture lights to enhance the stripes’ dimensionality. The irregular widths cast subtle shadows at oblique angles, adding to the painting’s dynamic presence. In a minimalist setting, Voodoo acts as a counterpoint to clean lines, while in a maximalist space, it grounds bolder decor with its structured chaos. Hang it at eye level, centered, to let the stripes draw the viewer into their hypnotic flow.

More Works by Gene Davis

Explore Davis’s evolution through these key pieces, from his early stripe experiments to his later, more expressive compositions.

Gene Davis

Ice Box P506

View print

Gene Davis

Micro Painting

View print

Gene Davis

Untitled

View print

Gene Davis

Hummingbird

View print

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