Ian Davenport: Melismatic

This summer we will unveil a major new body of etchings and monoprints by Ian Davenport, YBA and graduate of Goldsmiths College of Art, London. Davenport, who is driven by an enduring fascination with the materiality and process of painting and printmaking, has made a series of monumental triptychs, his largest prints to date, inspired by the colour compositions of historical paintings by Hans Holbein, Gustav Klimt, and Vincent van Gogh. 

Melismatic, a musical term which refers to the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession, includes further etchings and a series of splatter screenprints, a departure from Davenport’s signature technique of vertical lines cascading down into rich puddles of colour.