Simpson has explored varieties of abstraction since the early 1950s, enjoying acknowledgement and success in the art world. In 1963 he was chosen by New York’s Museum of Modern Art curator, Dorothy Miller, to appear in what turned out to be the last in her legendary series of group shows of contemporary American art. (Reinhardt was another painter included.) And in 1964 he appeared in Clement Greenberg’s famous exhibition Post Painterly Abstraction at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. At that time Simpson painted landscape-derived abstractions and, in the 70s, he practiced a reductive but relational mode of abstraction. But with his discovery of a new acrylic medium in 1987, he was able to embrace finally and successfully the monochrome’s radicality.
Simpson uses an acrylic paint with interference properties. The paint is composed of titanium dioxide electronically coated with mica particles. Simpson tends to mix complementaries, but admits that orange and blue also work together well. He also mixes black acrylic with the interference pigments, finding that a little bit of black helps the colour jump out. Interference pigments cause optical effects that are comparable to iridescence. When you look at the painting from one angle, you receive one set of colour sensations. When you shift your position, you get another. As you move back and forth in front of the canvas – and the paintings make you want to do so – the experience changes. The change of light also dramatically affects the optical experience, and the play of light across the canvas surface is subtly kinetic.
See biography
Works on canvas
Flowers
Installations
Videos
Works on canvas
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RESURECTION SHIFT, 1996
Acrylic on canvas
30,5 x 20,4 cm -
David Simpson, The Fordy Rose, 1997
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Acrylic on canvas
30,5 x 23 cm -
David Simpson, January, 2019
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Acrylic on canvas
41 x 41 cm -
David Simpson, Elysium Violet, 1997
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Acrylic on canvas
30,5 x 30,5 cm -
Eccentric polyplane #7, 1984
Acrylic on canvas on wood
30 x 30,2 x 5 cm -
Tri-square VII - converted - 0327S, 1986
Acrylic on canvas on wood
38 x 57 x 5 cm -
Eccentric monoplane: red shift - 0326S, 1984
Acrylic on canvas on wood
37 x 46 x 4,5 cm -
David Simpson, Introversion Chamber, 1994
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Acrylic on canvas
41 x 41 cm -
David Simpson, Spangled Gold, 2017
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Acrylic on canvas
86 x 86 cm -
David Simpson, Second Summer, 1998
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Acrylic on canvas
168 x 168 cm -
Rosie Out Look, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
86 x 86 x 4,5 cm -
C-Sharp, 2005
Acrylic on canvas
152,5 x 152,5 cm -
Dayglow, 2012
Acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 x 7 cm -
David Simpson, Quicksilver shift, 2013
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Acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm -
David Simpson, Blue Devil, 2019
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Acrylic on canvas
86 x 86 cm
Flowers
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David Simpson, Jewell Weed, 2020
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Acrylic on wood
30,5 x 23 cm -
David Simpson, Disaster Prone Daytura, 2020
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Acrylic on wood
30,5 x 23 cm -
David Simpson, Danello, 2021
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Acrylic on wood
30,5 x 23 cm
Installations
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TORN CURTAIN, 2024
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona -
CODICI, David Simpson - Marmi Romani, 2021
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona -
CODICI, David Simpson - Marmi Romani, 2021
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona -
Summer Show, 2016
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona -
Wall toys for adults, 2016
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona -
Installation view, 2016
Studio la Città at Arte Fiera, Bologna
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IN-FINITUM, 2009
Installation view
Palazzo Fortuny, Venezia -
David Simpson, 2008
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona -
David Simpson, 2001
Installation view
Studio la Città, Verona
