Davis Oklahoma Museum 1

Davis Lisboa, Davis Oklahoma Museum 1, 2012, oil on linen, 30 × 30 × 3.5 cm (11.8 × 11.8 ×  1.38 in)

This painting belongs to The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, a core component of a miniature museum conceived within a ballot box and formally recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The work establishes a precise conceptual link to the Davis Museum in Oklahoma, using a shared name to construct a dialogue between two distinct yet mirrored institutional forms.

Developed during the artist’s Gray Period (2011–2016), the painting reflects a deliberate reduction of chromatic range and a heightened attention to compositional structure. The restrained palette operates not as limitation but as a method, foregrounding balance, density, and spatial control.

Within this framework, the museum is approached as both subject and device. The work extends a line of inquiry into self-instituted structures, where the act of founding a museum becomes a critical gesture embedded in artistic practice.

This position aligns the project with key precedents such as Marcel Duchamp — Boîte-en-valise, Robert Filliou — Galerie légitime, and Marcel Broodthaers — Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. Rather than citation, these references function as an underlying logic, situating the work within a tradition where the museum operates simultaneously as form, fiction, and strategy.