Colour Splat
4 works
Ian Davenport De-da-de (Black) For Sale
Ian Davenport
De-da-de (Black), 2024
A series of four etchings on Madrid Litho 300gsm paper
29 5/8 x 25 1/4 in 75.3 x 64.2 cm
Edition
Edition of 30
About this work
Ian Davenport, a contemporary British artist, is renowned for his vibrant and dynamic prints that explore the interplay of color, form, and process. Davenport's use of color is central to his artistic practice, and he employs a variety of techniques to create visually striking and emotionally evocative works. One of the most distinctive aspects of Davenport's prints is his use of poured paint. He typically applies acrylic paint to a tilted surface, allowing gravity to guide the flow of the paint as it cascades down the surface. This process results in streams of color that blend and interact with one another, creating mesmerizing patterns and gradients. Davenport is known for his bold and saturated color palettes, often incorporating a wide range of hues into his prints. He frequently juxtaposes complementary colors or creates harmonious color schemes that draw the viewer's eye and evoke a sense of energy and movement. In addition to poured paint, Davenport also experiments with other printing techniques, such as screen printing and woodblock printing, to achieve different effects with color. He may layer multiple colors or use transparent inks to create depth and complexity in his prints. Davenport's use of color is not only visually striking but also conceptually rich. His prints often explore themes of perception, memory, and emotion, and color plays a central role in conveying these ideas. By manipulating color and form, Davenport invites viewers to engage with his work on multiple levels, prompting them to contemplate the ways in which color shapes our understanding of the world around us. Overall, Ian Davenport's prints demonstrate a masterful command of color and a keen understanding of its expressive potential. Whether through poured paint or other printing techniques, Davenport creates works that are vibrant, dynamic, and deeply immersive, inviting viewers to experience the joy and wonder of color in all its myriad forms.
Price on Application
Auction History
Mirrored Decal · Ian Davenport · · · $NaN
More from this series
More series by Ian Davenport
About the Broad Line Etchings Series
Explore Ian Davenport's Broad Line Etchings, a significant series showcasing the acclaimed British artist's mastery of line and form. This collection features striking works including Tra-la-la (White), De-da-de (Black), De-da-de (White), White Tide, and Tra-la-la (Black), each demonstrating Davenport's distinctive approach to printmaking through bold, gestural mark-making.
The Broad Line Etchings represent a pivotal moment in Davenport's practice, combining precision with spontaneity to create visually compelling compositions. Through the etching medium, the artist explores the interplay between monochromatic palettes and dynamic linear rhythms, resulting in works of considerable depth and visual presence.
Collectors value this series for its technical excellence and conceptual sophistication. Davenport's etchings occupy an important position within contemporary British printmaking, offering substantial investment potential alongside aesthetic merit.
Whether you're an established collector or discovering Davenport's work, these pieces merit serious consideration. Enquire for availability and pricing information on individual works from this notable series.
About Ian Davenport
Ian Davenport (b. 1965, Sidcup, Kent) is one of the most immediately recognisable and formally inventive painters to emerge from the YBA generation, an artist who in the early 1990s committed himself to a systematic investigation of paint, gravity, and the painted surface that has deepened and diversified over three decades without losing its initial radicalism. Davenport studied at Goldsmiths College, graduating in 1988 into the same extraordinary cohort that included Damien Hirst, Michael Landy, Sarah Lucas, and Gary Hume. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1991, one of the earliest nominations in the prize's history to go to a painter working in this rigorously non-representational mode.
Davenport's signature technique involves pouring liquid paint from the top of a canvas or support, allowing gravity to dictate the resulting vertical lines, or controlling poured arcs and horizontal stripes that pool and blend at the base. The process is simultaneously systematic and contingent: Davenport plans his colour sequences and dilutions with great care, but the exact behaviour of the paint as it flows and interacts remains partly outside his control. The results are works of extraordinary chromatic vibrancy and optical complexity — neighbouring colours bleed into one another at the edges, creating secondary hues and atmospheric effects that shift with viewing distance and light conditions. His series include Poured Lines, Colourfall, Puddle Paintings, Circular, and Arc works, each exploring a different configuration of his central method.
Working in industrial household paints — Davenport has long used the durability, pigment density, and workable viscosity of commercial paints rather than artist-grade materials — he produces surfaces that are both physically robust and visually luminous. The work carries its technical intelligence lightly: standing in front of a Colourfall or a major Poured Lines canvas, the formal decisions dissolve into pure perceptual pleasure. At auction, his paintings have achieved significant results: Poured Painting: Green, Magenta, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Red (1999) achieved £100,000 at Phillips London in July 2020, and Poured Lines: Cerise (2007) reached £126,000 at Christie's London in October 2021. His print editions — produced in accessible formats with strong chromatic fidelity to the painted originals — range from thousands to tens of thousands of pounds and represent excellent entry points for collectors new to his work.
Davenport's work is held in permanent collections at Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Sprengel Museum Hanover, Borusan Contemporary Istanbul, the Arts Council Collection, and the National Museum Cardiff, among other institutions.
Guy Hepner brings deep expertise to Ian Davenport's editions and original paintings. Our gallery at 177 Tenth Avenue, New York is well placed to assist collectors in acquiring his work or in selling and valuing existing holdings. We offer free, confidential valuations and access to a global network of collectors engaged with contemporary British painting.