Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston was a Los Angeles painter who adapted automotive lacquer, enamel, metallic paint, and aluminum to fine art and high-gloss surfaces.
Painter
Ronald Davis
Ronald Davis was an American painter known for colored polyester-resin and fiberglass abstractions, shaped panels, optical geometry, and acrylic painting.
Ronald Davis quick facts
Davis built optical color planes in pigmented polyester resin laminated to fiberglass, using molds, masks, and polished finishes on shaped supports.
| Born | 1937 · Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
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| Died | 2025 · Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Hard-edge painting · Geometric abstraction · Abstract Illusionism |
| Paint types | Oil paint (early work) · Acrylic paint (later work) |
| Painting surfaces | Fiberglass cloth and molded panels · Canvas (early and later paintings) |
| Painting methods | Masking perspective shapes and brushing pigmented resin face-down into waxed molds; layering fiberglass behind, curing, then peeling and polishing the work |
| Common subjects | Geometric color fields, dodecagons, shaped planes, optical depth, perspective, and spatial illusion |
| Industrial materials | Polyester-resin binder, dyes and pigments, fiberglass mat, waxed Formica molds, and reinforced backings |
| Notable works | Roto (1968) · Blue-Black (1968) · Three Panel (1969) |
Sources: Artist's technical statement on polyester-resin and fiberglass painting, LACMA: Roto (1968), molded polyester resin and fiberglass, Smithsonian Hirshhorn: Blue-Black, resin and fiberglass, Artist's studio: 1937–2025 dates and place of death, Artist's studio: Three Panel and late acrylic Polar series, Seattle Art Museum: oil on canvas, resins and later painting methods, and Smithsonian Archives of American Art: polyester-resin technique.
Paint types used by Ronald Davis
Records document Ronald Davis’s use of Oil paint, Acrylic paint; examples below link each paint medium to a specific work and its role in the image.
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Oil paint
LACMA’s record for Roto describes Davis’s early career in gestural oil-on-canvas painting before his move to geometric forms. Roto itself is cataloged as polyester resin and fiberglass, so it is not cited here as an oil painting; the distinction marks a change in material and process.
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Acrylic paint
LACMA records Tall Yellow (1965) as acrylic with aluminum powder on canvas. The aluminum powder is an added material, while the paint remains acrylic. Davis later returned to acrylic painting on canvas, documenting the medium across more than one phase.
Sources: LACMA: Roto, polyester resin and fiberglass; curatorial note on early oil paintings; LACMA: Tall Yellow, acrylic with aluminum powder on canvas; SFMOMA: 519 Pinwheel U, acrylic on canvas.
Painting surfaces used by Ronald Davis
Ronald Davis's documented works use fiberglass and canvas; examples clarify whether each is the painted ground, support, or part of the object.
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Fiberglass
Davis made molded fiberglass panels, combining fiberglass cloth with polyester resin to create shaped painting supports. LACMA’s Roto documents this construction, where the rigid panel and its angular form help define the composition rather than serving as a hidden backing.
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Canvas
Davis used canvas for early gestural oil paintings and later acrylic works. LACMA records Tall Yellow on canvas with acrylic and aluminum powder, while his early canvases document oil; these flat pictures differ from his later molded fiberglass reliefs. The collection entry identifies canvas as the work’s immediate support.
Sources: Artist's technical statement on polyester-resin and fiberglass painting, LACMA: Roto (1968), molded polyester resin and fiberglass, Smithsonian Hirshhorn: Blue-Black, resin and fiberglass, Artist's studio: 1937–2025 dates and place of death, Artist's studio: Three Panel and late acrylic Polar series.
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