Gene Davis (1920-1985) was an American painter known especially for his paintings of vertical stripes of color, and was a member of the group in Washington, DC during the 1960s known as the Washington Color School. Davis was born in Washington, DC and spent nearly all his life there. Before he began to paint in 1949, he worked as a sportswriter, covering the Washington Redskins and other local teams. Working as a journalist in the late 1940s, he covered the Roosevelt and Truman presidential administrations, and was often President Truman's partner for poker games.

In the 1960s, Davis participated in the Washington Color Painters exhibit at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington, DC, which traveled around the US, and launched the recognition of the Washington Color School as a regional movement in which Davis was a central figure. The Washington painters were among the most prominent of the mid-century color field painters.