David Davidson

A glorious portrayer of man's folly, an ardent student of art history (which he uses with unique panache) this artist is a rarity in the art world -- an intellectual who throws caution to the wind and uses incredible skills with color and brush to brush us up against philosophical truths.

In collections in the Library of Congress, the Richard J. Daley College Exhibitions, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Artemesions Gallery, the Indiana State University Museum and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, David Davidson's work has been recognized for its unique combinations of political observation and artistic liberties.

Living in France and Germany following World War II, he created work centering on wartime experiences in the manner of Kokoschka, Beckman, Kollowitz and the German Expressionists. The 1960s and 1970s brought an interest in formal portraits in both oil and charcoal, the result of training under Eric Von Cleef, the prominent German portrait artist.

Mr. Davidson's most recent works involve keen social and political satire. The dark and intense oil paintings are often drawn from literary, historical and Biblical sources. Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholas Tulp was the model for The Anatomy Lesson Chicago Style, which is peopled with the likes of Mayors Byrne and Daley. His technique also draws from historical sources and he uses heavy underpainting and the application of numerous glazes. Collage technique and photographs are also employed in his very large-scale essays on mankind. His painting of the O.J. Simpson trial is unforgettable, as is his portrait of the Kennedy Assassination and his harsh but brilliantly satirical Babes of War.