Exhibit Details
Date: April 16th – May 23rd, 2024
Location: The Arts Council Gallery
Richard R. Davison Jr
Richard R. Davison Jr, a professor emeritus of the College of Architecture faculty at Texas A&M University, was born in Marlin, Texas in 1953. He received a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M in 1975. After graduation he pursued his career in art, obtained a BFA and MFA from the University of California at Irvine in 1976 and Washington University in 1979, respectively.
Davison has established himself as one of the major artists in the state and distinguished himself nationally by having been featured in several national exhibitions, including “Superficial: An Exhibition About the Surface of a Painting” at the Art museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; “Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum Industry in American Art”, a five museum touring exhibition curated by Francine Carraro; “Texas Art for Russia”, Invitational Group Exhibition, organized by Art League of Houston, curated by internationally known artist, Frank Williams. Davison has also been a recipient of several awards, both as an artist and as a teacher. Most notably, he received the Texas A&M association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement award in Teaching and honorary induction into Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society, Alpha Alpha Chapter, Texas A&M University. Furthermore, his work has been featured in solo exhibitions, including, recently, an exhibition titled “Heavenly Architecture” at The Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas.
Artist Statement
This is an exhibition of painting/constructions based on stories from the life of David the King in the Bible.
My wife and I went to Israel in 2022. I had already done a couple of the paintings in this exhibition, but after touring in Jerusalem and seeing the area of the “city of David” (south of the temple mount), I was inspired to make more paintings which touched on the life of David, Israel’s greatest king. The works here do not take a “typical” tack in telling their story; the closest to a conventional “David painting” is “D&B”, but even here the view is not typical – David is not looking at a “naked lady” (as paintings of this story typically portray), and the view of Bathsheba is awkward and distant (as it almost certainly was historically).
If ever there were an example of “salvation by grace” (and not works, lest anyone should boast”–Ephesians 2:8), it is David who murdered a man for his wife yet was called “a man after God’s own heart”. David wrote over half of the 150 Psalms in which his devotion to, confidence in, and love of God is clear and inspired.
I have long used collage as an experimental element in my drawings and studies generally. But only in the past few years have I attempted to use what I will call “collage strategies” in my larger work. These paintings all incorporate collage elements as well as a variety of materials used in the construction of the supporting structures.
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