Noah Davis, ‘1975 (1), 2013. Oil on canvas. Private collections.<\/p>\n
Chadd Scott<\/p>\n
A warm sun shines on the man\u2019s back. At least for now. Tomorrow, who knows? Life in America for young Black men is nothing if not uncertain, to put it kindly.<\/p>\n
He walks with his head down, shoulders slightly slumped, as if carrying a weight\u2013weight both real and unseen. A burden. The baseless blames for a nation\u2019s problems. The scapegoat.<\/p>\n
Noah Davis was 30 years old when he painted 1975 (1), one of a series of paintings based on photographs his mother took in college between 1977 and 1980. 1975 was when she first became interested in photography.<\/p>\n
Davis had two more years to live. Cancer. <\/p>\n
What about the protagonist of 1975 (1), who could have been Davis himself? How much longer did he have? Would he grow old and take grandkids to Dodgers\u2019 games? Would a racist cop murder him later that afternoon in a traffic stop?<\/p>\n
Noah Davis paintings look into Black life in America, not at it. Regular Black folks. Lots of young people. Like himself. Not rich, not poor, not hustling, not struggling. Just living.<\/p>\n
Like the neighborhood kids playing at the community pool, also from his 1975 series, a stop-you-in-your-tracks, sincere, insightful, nostalgic slice of life from before kids were on their devices all day, kids turned loose by parents to have fun and make friends IRL. <\/p>\n
Davis was also a committed student of art history from ancient Egypt to \u201cHood Rothko\u2019s,\u201d a hysterical expression of his own creation. His 1975 bathers now hang one floor above the most famous bathers in painting, Paul C\u00e9zanne\u2019s<\/a>; \u201cNoah Davis\u201d opens January 24 and remains on view through April 26, 2026, at the Philadelphia Art Museum, the last stop in a gorgeous, melancholy retrospective<\/a> that traveled to Potsdam, Germany, London, England, and Los Angeles, California, where Davis passed. <\/p>\n Davis had no connection to Philadelphia other than his talent. His paintings\u2014his bathers\u2014belong here, under the same roof as C\u00e9zanne\u2019s bathers and Van Gogh\u2019s sunflowers and Diego Rivera\u2019s frescos. They\u2019re that good. As good as anything. And rare. <\/p>\n Because Davis died so young, he was unable to paint hundreds of artworks and see them distributed to museum collections around the world. Much of what\u2019s on view in Philadelphia comes from private collections. See them now or see them never, perhaps.<\/p>\n See them now.<\/p>\n Noah Davis Paintings<\/p>\n Noah Davis, ‘1975 (8),’ 2013. Oil on canvas in artist\u2019s frame. Private collection \u00a9 The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner.<\/p>\n Photo: Kerry McFate; \u00a9 David Zwirner<\/p>\n Where bathers are an art historical standard, 1990s daytime trash TV talk shows were not a topic picked up by master painters before Davis. <\/p>\n On view adjacent to his \u201c1975\u201d paintings is another series, calling out the daily mockery Black people faced on Maury, Ricki Lake, and The Jerry Springer Show. Black people as laughingstock, caricature. Paternity test reveals and stepfathers sexually attracted to stepdaughters. Black people cast and produced to look stupid and foolish as standard operating procedure. Bigotry for ratings.<\/p>\n Davis could paint with tenderness or bring the hammer.<\/p>\n He painted housing projects, not as places of violence and decay, but as places of potential. He painted his father, Keven Davis. Noah Davis had just become a father himself when dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He painted Black excellence, architect Paul Revere Williams<\/a>, who built over 3,000 buildings in Los Angeles between the 1920s and 1970s when architects were almost exclusively white and the city was still racially segregated. <\/p>\n All appear in \u201cNoah Davis,\u201d a survey bringing together over 60 works across painting, sculpture, works on paper, and curating completed between 2007 and his death in 2015.<\/p>\n The Missing Link<\/p>\n Portrait of Noah Davis.<\/p>\n Patrick O\u2019Brian Smith<\/p>\n Painting alone would never be enough to produce the change Davis sought. He wanted to author an alternate canon of art history, a canon recognizing historically overlooked artists, and make their artwork available to all. <\/p>\n In 2012, he and his wife, fellow artist Karon Davis, co-founded the Underground Museum with a small inheritance left to Noah by his father. The money was expressly intended for fostering community and joy. The couple used it to convert three storefronts in the historically Black and Latinx neighborhood of Arlington Heights, Los Angeles into a free cultural center. <\/p>\n Davis had been pondering an absence he felt, a hole, a missing link. Space for the people around him to feel recognized and gather. An exhibition titled \u201cThe Missing Link\u201d opened in L.A. in February 2013. Paintings from that show and series appear in the survey.<\/p>\n Community, togetherness, society. Places of recreation and culture and music and joy and friendship. Places like community swimming pools and housing projects. Places like the Underground Museum. <\/p>\n Carrying on without Davis proved too much and the Museum closed in 2022<\/a>. Some people, you can\u2019t replace.<\/p>\n Philadelphia Art Openings And Closings<\/p>\n Noah Davis, ‘Untitled,’ 2015. Oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Marie – Jos\u00e9e and Henry R. Kravis in honor of Jerry Speyer\u2019s 80th birthday, 2020.<\/p>\n \u00a9 David Zwirner<\/p>\n The art gods giveth and they taketh away. While Philadelphia welcomes the opening of \u201cNoah Davis\u201d and Susan Kleckner at Haverford College<\/a>, previewed previously by Forbes.com<\/a>, it prepares to say goodbye to a pair of landmark special exhibitions premiered in the fall. <\/p>\n Across a grand atrium from where Davis\u2019 paintings are presented, PhAM displays \u201cDreamworld: Surrealism at 100,\u201d<\/a> a major exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Surrealist movement through February 16. The final stop in an ambitious tour organized with the Centre Pompidou in Paris\u2014and the sole venue in the United States\u2014the exhibition features important works from the movement\u2019s key figures including Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dal\u00ed.<\/p>\n The Barnes Foundation, a half mile down Benjamin Franklin Parkway from PhAM, presents \u201cHenri Rousseau: A Painter\u2019s Secrets<\/a>\u201d through February 22. The landmark exhibition features paintings from the Barnes\u2019 collection and museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art\u2019s The Sleeping Gypsy (1897)<\/a>, one of the most famous paintings in art history and a crown jewel of MoMA\u2019s collection rarely loaned. For the first time ever, three of Rousseau\u2019s major works will appear in the same space: The Sleeping Gypsy, Unpleasant Surprise (1899\u20131901, the Barnes), and The Snake Charmer (1907, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris). Not even the artist himself witnessed this grouping; by the time he made The Snake Charmer, The Sleeping Gypsy was no longer in his possession.<\/p>\n Fortunately, more time remains to see the spectacular display of Ruth E. Carter\u2019s movie costume designs at Philly\u2019s African American Museum. \u201cRuth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design\u201d<\/a> stays on view through September 6th, 2026, with unforgettable wardrobes created by Carter for movies including \u201cDo the Right Thing,\u201d \u201cMalcom X,\u201d \u201cAmistad,\u201d \u201cSelma,\u201d \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d and \u201cSinners.\u201d<\/p>\n Philadelphia\u2019s African American Museum, where history is shared, stands two blocks from Independence National Historical Park, where history has been erased by the Trump regime.<\/a><\/p>\n More From ForbesForbesPioneering Feminist Artist Susan Kleckner Receives First Comprehensive RetrospectiveBy Chadd Scott<\/a>ForbesPhilly Is The Champ This Fall For ArtsBy Chadd Scott<\/a>ForbesWhat Are Confederate Monuments Doing In Los Angeles?By Chadd Scott<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noah Davis, ‘1975 (1), 2013. Oil on canvas. Private collections. 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