This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| A contemporary realist painter especially known for his brightly-neon
lit
art-deco theatre exteriors, Davis Cone is part of the movement
reclaiming realism as a strong part of American art. With
his acrylic theatre depictions, he has chosen his subject matter to
celebrate
one of the disappearing icons of early 20th-century American life, but
it appears that this subject became an increasing interest of Cone as
his early works, although focused on architecture of old buildings, are
not restricted to Art-Deco movie theatres.
His working method is meticulous, with him completing only four to five
paintings a year. He combines elements of various photographs of
a particular theatre, and then present the image as though frozen in
time and devoid of human presence but with obvious weather
conditions. Although some of the big-time famous movie houses
appear in his paintings, many of them are from small towns such as the Hollywood Theatre in Litchfield, Minnesota, and Wink Theatre
in Dalton, Georgia. "The theaters Cone chooses as subjects tend to be
small and to show alternative films, indicating that they are
representatives of a dying culture." (Katz)
One of his subjects is Loew's Atlanta, the movie theatre in Atlanta Georgia that was the site of the premier of the movie Gone with the Wind, and
that burned in 1978. On the marquee in this painting, Cone has
written what seems to be an apt message about what is happening to the
Art Deco movie theatres in America: 'Curse the Dead' and 'Scream Bloody
Murder'. Other movie titles that he has placed on marquees in his
paintings are 'The Survivors', 'Sudden Death', and 'Seems Like Old
Times'.
Also Davis Cone quite often places his signature in subtle places on his paintings such as on a car parked in front of Park Theatre.
Cone is a native of Augusta, Georgia and because of his focus on
Realism, was denied admission to the University of Georgia Fine Arts
School. He began exhibiting in his region
1977. Within a decade, he had exhibition venues far beyond
Georgia including Germany, Spain, and Japan as well as many cities in
America. One-person museum exhibitions include the Georgia Museum
of Art in Athens and the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. His work was in the group exhibition, "American
Photorealism" at the Zummerli Art Museum at Rutgers University and The
Seavest Collection of Contemporary Realism at the Neuberger Museum of
Art in Purchase, New York.
Sources include:
http://www.artregister.com/SeavestIntroductiontoCollection/Catalogue/ConeThompson.html
http://www.forumgallery.com/adetail.php?id=76
Vincent Katz, "Davis Cone at O.K. Harris", Art in America, March 1999
Jim Sweeney, Popcorn Palaces: The Art Deco Movie Theatre Paintings of Davis Cone, Book Review of the Art Deco Society of Washington
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