Since he began painting at the tail end of the 1950s, Ronald Davis has always vacillated between the all-over gestural automatism of Abstract Expressionism and a hard-edge, geometrical style that stresses optical illusion alongside deliberate draftsmanship. His latest "Freeline" and "Freefloat" series continue this dialogue, presenting streamlined architectural forms (arches, slabs and beams) against amorphous splattered backgrounds.
Whether floating in isolation or enveloping each other, the forms cast dropped shadows in order to accentuate their apparent three-dimensionality. This is reinforced by Davis' use of Day-Glo animation cel colors, causing each object to pop retinally from the flat picture plane. Pure illusion is undermined, however, by his inclusion of rough perspective lines that draw attention to the constructed artificiality of the entire enterprise.
