Cool Staccato

Cool Staccato, with its parade of brightly colored, edge-to-edge vertical stripes, is a prime example of Gene Davis’ signature style. Davis began to use the stripe format to provide what he termed a “matrix” for the play of color. Cool Staccato invites us to scan or read the surface of the canvas, moving from one color to another. The color stripes create a rhythmic effect, as if notes on a sheet of music, corresponding to the musical reference in the title: “staccato” (sharply detached notes).