NOAH DAVIS, “The Missing Link 4,” 2013 (oil on canvas, 78 x 86 1/4 inches / 198.1 x 219.1 cm). | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by AHAN: Studio Forum, 2013 Art Here and Now purchase. © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
THE PAINTINGS ARE ENTRANCING. One features two rows of elegant ballerinas posing in the arabesque position along the pathways of a Pueblo del Rio in Los Angeles, a low-rise, public housing community designed by Southeast Housing Architects Associated, a team that included Paul R. Williams and Richard Neutra. Others capture a young boy diving into an expansive, turquoise blue pool; a crew of men shouldering a long, narrow boat; and a high-rise building rendered as a multi-toned grid, at once abstract and architectural.
About 60 works by American artist Noah Davis (1983–2015) are on view in a new exhibition at DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, Germany, about an hour from Berlin. Davis was a talented painter, curator, and institution builder who died at age 32, from a rare form of cancer. He co-founded The Underground Museum in Los Angeles because he was determined to present museum-quality art in the Black and Latinx neighborhood of Arlington Heights in Los Angeles, Calif. A unique project and a critical success, the beloved museum was active for about a decade (2012-2022).
Presenting a comprehensive overview of the artist’s short-lived career, the retrospective unfolds chronologically, beginning with works from his first exhibition in 2007 and concluding with works produced in 2015, the final year of his life. The selections include paintings (some shown publicly for the first time), sculpture, and works on paper. The traveling show is the first international institutional exhibition of Davis and the largest presentation of his work to date. CT
“Noah Davis” is on view at DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, Germany, from Sept. 7, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025, and will travel next to the Barbican in London, UK (Feb. 6-May 11, 2025), and Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Calif. (June 8-August 31, 2025)
FIND MORE about the exhibition
FIND MORE about Noah Davis at David Zwirner gallery and The Underground Museum on the now-shuttered institution’s website
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
NOAH DAVIS, “Pueblo del Rio: Arabesque,” 2014 (oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches / 121.9 x 182.9 cm). | Collection of Miguel Pimentel © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
NOAH DAVIS, Untitled, 2015 (oil on canvas, 32 x 50 inches / 81.3 x 127 cm). | The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis in honor of Jerry Speyer’s 80th birthday, 2020. © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
NOAH DAVIS, “The Year of the Coxswain,” 2009 (oil on canvas, 48 1/2 x 48 1/2 x 2 inches / 123.2 x 123.2 x 5.1 cm). | Studio Museum in Harlem; Geschenk von Martin und Rebecca Eisenberg © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis und David Zwirner
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. Shown, Works from Noah Davis’s 2015-16 exhibition “Imitation of Wealth” at Los Angeles MOCA, Grand Avenue. (The show was first installed at The Underground Museum in 2013). | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. Shown, Works from Noah Davis’s 2015-16 exhibition “Imitation of Wealth” at Los Angeles MOCA, Grand Avenue. (The show was first installed at The Underground Museum in 2013). | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
NOAH DAVIS, “Mary Jane,” 2008 (oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 52 1/4 inches, 152.4 x 132. 7 cm). | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis und David Zwirner
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. | Mellon Foundation Art Collection; Private collection, London © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
NOAH DAVIS, “Isis,” 2009 (oil and acrylic on linen, 48 x 48 / 121.9 x 121.9 cm). | Mellon Foundation Art Collection © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
NOAH DAVIS, “40 Acres and a Unicorn,” 2007 (acrylic and gouache on canvas, 30 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches / 77.5 x 66.3 cm). | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
Installation view of “Noah Davis” exhibition, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, 2024. | © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner, Photo by Ladislav Zajac
NOAH DAVIS, “1975 (8),” 2013 (oil on canvas, 49 1/2 x 73 1/2 x 1 7/8 inches / 125.7 x 186.7 x 4.8 cm). | Private Collection of Martin H. Nesbitt and Dr. Anita Blanchard. © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
BOOKSHOP
The international traveling exhibition of Noah Davis is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog offering a comprehensive scholarly examination of his practice, with essays by Wells Fray-Smith, Paola Malavassi, Eleanor Nairne, Tina M. Campt, and Claudia Rankine; additional texts by Dawoud Bey, T.J. Clark, Francesco Clemente, Karon Davis, Marlene Dumas, Helen Molesworth, and Jason Moran; and archival materials and a detailed chronology. The volume is forthcoming in March 2025. “Noah Davis” (2020) and “Noah Davis: In Detail” (2023), recent volumes edited by Molesworth, offer thoughtful explorations of the artist’s work. Davis is also among the artists featured in “30 Americans: Rubell Family Collection,” which documents a landmark exhibition first shown in 2008-09 that continues to travel showcasing works by some of the nation’s most acclaimed African American contemporary artists.
