Turner Prize-nominated abstract artist Ian Davenport has just completed a dazzling large-scale art work for the University of Warwick.
The piece is one of the artist's renowned paint-poured art works, created by dribbling thin straight lines of paint down a wall.
| |  | Ian Davenport's wall painting at the University of Warwick, from above
|
His paintings of this style have previously been created for such impressive places as Tate Liverpool and Tate Britain and this is the first time he's made one in Coventry.
Unique technique
The shimmering curtain of colour was created by pouring lines of paint down a huge 30 x 35-foot wall.
The bright colours are combined to produce a striking lined wall painting.
The technique of “pouring paint down walls” makes the physical process of producing the work sound deceptively simple.
Davenport works with paint that drips and flows, but he calculates the effect of each colour on the next very carefully. He uses acrylic paint that flows freely and applies it using a syringe at the top edge of the wall.
Education link
| |  | The painting in the new Maths and Statistics building
|
The University of Warwick commissioned the work - with lottery funding - in the new Maths and Statistics building.
The university saw a link between the courses based there and Davenport's process, as his piece shows interest in the physical properties of paint and gravity.
Davenport also saw this connection and said: "The piece is ‘public art’ and is about the physical relationship of art, colour and the viewer. It’s about how people react to colour and the relationship of colour with the viewer.
"Conceptual art has had a long history of exploring theoretical ideas, such as abstract mathematics, in sensory form, providing the perfect basis for this type of exploration."
See the work
Sarah Shalgosky, Curator of the Mead Gallery and the University of Warwick’s Art Collection, said: "The vast wall of glittering colour provides a magnificent centrepiece to the architectural spaces of the new building.
"Ian Davenport's colourful shiny paintings never fail to create a huge visual impact. He has a real ability to demonstrate the expressive possibilities of abstract paintings."
The piece will be part of the University of Warwick’s educational outreach Colour Trail and can be see in the new Maths and Statistics building.
| 
