Ian Davenport

I wanted to move away from looking at digital experimental art for awhile and look at some traditional digital art. This would be a nice change and I thought this way I would have something to compare and contrast the digital work with as well. I came across numerous works by artists but none interested me more than Ian Davenports drip paint style.

Daven is a British artist born in Kent (Sidcup) 1966. He first began to study art at the Northwich College of Art and Design in Cheshire before going to Goldsmiths College from which he graduated in 1988. In the same year of his graduation he featured an exhibition at the Damien Hurst Freeze Exhibition, his appearence in this exhibition brought together many of the members of the Young British Artists group. Davenport never really did a solo exhibition until the year of 1990, in the same year his work was also included in the British Art Show. Then in 1991 he was nominated for the Turner Prize.

Every colour here compliments one another – regardless of the contrast between them

I really like the technique Davenport uses to create his pieces, I think it is what attracted me to his work - the way a moth is to a light. Davenport creates his work by pouring paint on to a tilted surface and then letting gravity spread the paint in its own will over the surface. Davenport after a while began working on medium density fibre board rather than canvas - I guess the fibre board will allow the paint to travel further and faster than the canvas without being absorbed. Davenport also began using household gloss paint more often than any other type of paint, this meant that the viewer would be able to see their reflection in his work - almost as if they were a key element of his work where they bring life to the lifeless paint strips.

The choice of two complimentary colours with varying line values makes this look like a subtle fable

Other than many of the singular surface works by Davenport's, there are many diptychs (an object with two flat surfaces joined together at a hinge) and even triptychs (same as dictychs except this time three seperate flat surfaces joined and two seperate hinges).

In 2003 Davenport made a thirteen metre high wall painted piece for The Days Like These Tate Exhitbition which he made by dripping different coloured paints down the wall from a syringe (hint of Pollock). But then in the September of 2006 he revealed his largest piece to date. It was 48m long and 3m high, it just isn't possible to take the whole thing in one look - no matter how far back you stand. To fully appreciate this piece you had to stand up close to the painting at one end and then walk along it, slowly absorbing the glossiness, the thextures and the contrasting and harmonic colours that have been dripped down from three metres above. This piece was called 'Poured Lines: Southwark' and is currently available to view beneath the railway bridge close to the Tate Gallery.

'Poured Lines: Southwark' (his biggest piece yet)

After looking through many of Davenport's paintings, I have come to believe that he does not just pick up any random colour and drip it down before moving on to another random colour and doing the same - like many have said. I believe that he stops after every line of colour and takes a step back to view his work and decide which colour would compliment the current line of colour - whether it be a similar or contrasting tone depends all on which way on the colour wheel he wants to travel. As you begin to follow he colours down from the top you almost get a sense that the colours are shimmering, and since the paint is still wet you also get the birth of a third colour from the two coloured stripes when they mix in to each other on their way down.

I like this style and I think it’s a something fresh and a feasible which we can work in ourselves. It’s also good to know that his work is available to view locally in order to find some inspiration – and also the fact that he is British and is still creating something like this means all hope for the Brit’s is not lost.


Bibliography

Red/Blue/Yellow:
http://saltbridges.bioch.ox.ac.uk/iandavenportcv.html

Yellow/Blue:
http://saltbridges.bioch.ox.ac.uk/westendwall.html

Poured Lines - Southwark:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5315186.stm



Links:

Damien Hurst (first exhibition appearance):
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hirst.html

Young British Artists (he helped give birth to):
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=320

Poured Lines: Southwark (second largest piece created):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5315186.stm


Video:

Davenport's Everything piece in University of Warwick (his largest piece ever created):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uHVnslH331o