A review in The Guardian describes Davis (1983-2015) as a great painter, a pioneer of free culture in black working-class Los Angeles and a terrible loss to contemporary art. He died of cancer at the age of 32, leaving a young family, a wildly unconventional gallery and several hundred strange and immemorial paintings.
Motivated by the desire to ‘represent the people around me’, Davis painted figures diving into pools, sleeping, dancing, and looking at art in scenes that can be both realistic and dreamlike, joyful and melancholic. Davis drew from anonymous photography, personal archives, film, art history and his imagination to create a ravishing body of work. Often enigmatic, his paintings reveal a deep feeling for humanity and the emotional textures of the everyday.
The Barbican Exhibition runs until Sunday 11 May …
Here is a small selection from the work on display.
Some more images from my visit.
I kept bumping into this very stylish couple …
A lovely exhibition – I really enjoyed my visit.
After the frankly depressing weather of recent weeks, I have been desperately searching for signs of the coming Spring. I thankfully found them at Bunhill and around the Barbican Estate …
That little walkabout cheered me up a lot.
And I really love this modest initiative on Moor Lane …
On a sombre note, I think it’s appropriate to mention that this year is the 50th anniversary of the terrible Moorgate train crash. Forty three people lost their lives and there are two memorials, one in Finsbury Square …
… and the other on the station wall …
The cause of the disaster remains a mystery.
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