Untitled

Davis employed screenprinting to achieve sharp, unmodulated fields of color—red, yellow, black, and green—layered with deliberate contrast. The technique allowed for crisp edges and flat planes, aligning with his preference for clarity over texture. His style merges modernist abstraction with references to commercial design, resulting in compositions that feel both structured and spontaneous.

This print was produced in 1964, the year of Davis’s death. It belongs to a limited portfolio of screenprints made during the final phase of his career, reflecting his sustained engagement with printmaking despite his primary reputation as a painter. The portfolio was likely issued posthumously or in close proximity to his passing, preserving his late aesthetic direction.

Davis emerged from the Ashcan School but evolved toward abstraction, influenced by Cubism and American industrial culture. His work in the 1930s included participation in New Deal art programs and political advocacy. By the 1960s, his focus had shifted entirely to formal experimentation, distancing from overt social commentary while retaining the dynamism of urban life.

Davis’s screenprints, including this untitled work, helped legitimize printmaking as a medium for modernist expression in America. His synthesis of abstraction, color theory, and rhythmic composition influenced later generations of painters and printmakers. The portfolio remains a key document of his late-period vision, bridging his earlier social realism with pure formal inquiry.