Art + Design 
22 February 2022
Art + Design 
162

Ronald Davis b.1937

Lift and Bent Vents (from Snapline I Series)

1977
cel-vinyl acrylic and dry pigment on canvas 65 h × 77½ w in (165 × 197 cm)
estimate: $12,000–15,000
result: $35,000
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Signed, titled, dated and inscribed to verso ‘559. Lift and Bent Vents 165.5 x 197 cm 1977 Ronald Davis’.
provenance: The Estate of Kirk Langdon, Miami | Acquired from the previous, Private Collection, Los Angeles

This work will ship from Los Angeles, California.

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Ronald Davis's 'Snapline I Series'

Interior view of Ronald Davis's studio at Pico Boulevard and 4th Avenue in Los Angeles. Photo by Bob Jaye. Courtesy of Ronald Davis.

Celebrated as a master of geometric abstraction and optical illusion, Ronald Davis has employed a wide variety of techniques throughout his career, from paper-making to computer-assisted painting. In the mid-1970s, he began to adapt the snap line – a tool primarily used in construction – to create perspective grids that would form the basis of a series of large paintings. By arranging a chalked or pigmented cord across the canvas and then snapping it, he was able to swiftly lay out the large, precise lines that were critical to his vision. Created between 1974 and 1978, the nearly 40 works of the Snapline I Series combine rigorous geometry with more fluid painterly marks, resulting in hybrid and layered meditations on perspective.

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