Douglas Davis (artist)
Encyclopedia
Douglas Davis is an American artist, critic, teacher, and writer born in 1933 in Washington, D.C.
.
, alongside Nam June Paik
and Joseph Beuys
, Douglas Davis took part in one of the first international satellite telecasts with his live performance The Last Nine Minutes.
, The World's First Collaborative Sentence (1994). His early work is featured on his website, The World's First Collaborative Sentence (1994), with elements from his exhibition InterActions 1967-1981. They include critical essays by Susan Hoeltzel, Michael Govan, David Ross, and Nam June Paik. Commissioned by the Lehman College Art Gallery, the Sentence was given by its collectors, Barbara and Eugene M. Schwartz, to the Whitney Museum of American Art
. In 1997, P.S.1/The Institute of Contemporary Art joined with several other museums to host MetaBody (The World's First Collaborative Visions of the Beautiful), commissioned by George Waterman III. In 1997, Davis launched Terrible Beauty, an evolving global multi-media theater piece. Its "chapters" have been performed before audiences in New York, Dublin, San Francisco, and Berlin.
Davis has been awarded grants for his work by the Rockefeller Foundation
, the National Endowment for the Arts
& the Trust for Mutual Understanding, among other institutions. He has testified often before Congress in behalf of artist's rights. In 1996, he co-founded with a group of artists and organizations a new collaborative devoted to the digital arts, "ThunderGulch," based in Lower Manhattan.
Davis currently lives in New York City. His wife of over thirty years, Jane Bell Davis, died in 2005. He has three daughters.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Artistic career
In 1977, at the opening of documenta 6Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
, alongside Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
and Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
, Douglas Davis took part in one of the first international satellite telecasts with his live performance The Last Nine Minutes.
Early internet works
His exploration of interactivity involving various media continued throughout the 80s and 90s. He is the author of one of the earliest art pieces on the world wide webWorld Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, The World's First Collaborative Sentence (1994). His early work is featured on his website, The World's First Collaborative Sentence (1994), with elements from his exhibition InterActions 1967-1981. They include critical essays by Susan Hoeltzel, Michael Govan, David Ross, and Nam June Paik. Commissioned by the Lehman College Art Gallery, the Sentence was given by its collectors, Barbara and Eugene M. Schwartz, to the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
. In 1997, P.S.1/The Institute of Contemporary Art joined with several other museums to host MetaBody (The World's First Collaborative Visions of the Beautiful), commissioned by George Waterman III. In 1997, Davis launched Terrible Beauty, an evolving global multi-media theater piece. Its "chapters" have been performed before audiences in New York, Dublin, San Francisco, and Berlin.
Teaching and writing
He has taught advanced media at more than 25 universities and art colleges and served as consultant in this field for several corporations & foundations. Davis published the book Art and the Future in several countries in 1973. ArtCulture: Essays on the Post-Modern (1977), is a book of theoretical essays. The Five Myths of TV Power (or, Why the Medium is Not the Message), 1993, focuses on the crucial importance of the viewer, the "human" element in media theory.Davis has been awarded grants for his work by the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
& the Trust for Mutual Understanding, among other institutions. He has testified often before Congress in behalf of artist's rights. In 1996, he co-founded with a group of artists and organizations a new collaborative devoted to the digital arts, "ThunderGulch," based in Lower Manhattan.
Davis currently lives in New York City. His wife of over thirty years, Jane Bell Davis, died in 2005. He has three daughters.
Exhibitions
- The Anagrammatic Body, Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria, 1999
- The Net. Condition, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1999
- The American Century, Part II, Whitney Museum, 1999
- Governor's Conference on the Arts and Technology, Information Technology Center, New York (installation), 1998
- P.S. 1/Institute of Contemporary Art, New York (website), 1997
- WithDrawing, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, 1996
- X-Art Foundation, New York, 1996
- Kwangju Biennale, Korea, 1995
- Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, 1995 (retrospective)
- InterActions (1967–1981), Art Gallery, Lehman College, New York City, 1994
- Discours Amoureux, Galerie St. Gervais, Geneva, 1994
- TranceSex, Amanda Obering Gallery, Los Angeles, 1993
- Ronald Feldman Fine Arts (one-man), 1992, 1985, 1984, 1981, 1980, 1977
- Centro de Arte y Communicacion—Harrod's en Arte, Buenos Aires, 1991
- Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany, 1989
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1986, 1988
- Whitney Museum of American Art, (Biennial 1985), 1981, 1977, 1972
- Venice Biennale, 1976, 1978, 1986
- The New Museum, New York City, 1983, 1984
- The Museum of Modern Art, 1983,
- The Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, 1983, 1984
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982 (traveling exhibition)
- Wadsworth Atheneum, 1982–1983
- Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1981
Publications
- Essays on the Post-Modern. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. ISBN 9780064310000
- The Museum Transformed: Design and Culture in the Post-Pompidou Age. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990. ISBN 1558590641
- The Five Myths of Television Power, Or, Why the Medium is Not the Message. Riverside, New Jersey, U.S.A.: Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 9780671739638
Further reading
- Selz, Peter and Kristine Stiles. Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.
- Stanislawski, Ryszard, ed. Douglas Davis: Video Objekty Grafika. Lodz, Poland: Museum Sztuki, 1982.
- Kuspit, David. Douglas Davis. New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1988.
- Walther, Ingo, ed. Art of the 20th Century. Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 1998.
- Weibel, Peter and Christa Steinle, eds. Anagrammatic Body. Graz, Austria: Neue Galerie, 2000.
External links
- Douglas Davis biography at Electronic Arts Intermix
- Douglas Davis biography at Media Art Net
- Douglas Davis timeline of projects at 1904.CC
- Interview with Douglas Davis
- Douglas Davis' personal blog