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Alan DavieVibrant Alan Davie Scottish Colorful Surrealist British Pop Art Village Painting1982
1982
About the Item
Alan Davie, Scotland (1920-2014).
Gouache painting with watercolor
'Village Myth'
Hand signed ('with love') lower left,
1982
Dimensions: with frame 37.5"H x 30.25"W; image, 28"H x 22.5"W.
James Alan Davie (1920 – 2014) was a Scottish painter and musician.
Davie was born in Grangemouth, Scotland in 1920, the son of Elizabeth (née Turnbull) and James William Davie, an art teacher and painter who exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1925. During this formative period Davie discovered the poetry of Walt Whitman and T.S. Eliot, whose prose is echoed in letters home as well as his own verses.
Alan Davie studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1937 to 1941. An early exhibition of his work came through the Society of Scottish Artists.
After the Second World War, Davie played tenor saxophone in the Tommy Sampson Orchestra, which was based in Edinburgh and broadcast and toured in Europe. He also earned a living making jewellery during the postwar period. Davie began teaching basic design in the jewellery department at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts led by the Scottish artist William Johnstone, where colleagues included artists Nigel Henderson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton and Patrick Heron. In 1961, Davie’s jewellery was featured in The International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery at London’s Goldsmith’s Hall, a milestone in the history of jewellery making in Britain where an impressive roster of international and British artists including Alexander Calder, Naum Gabo, Victor Pasmore and John McHale appeared in a section on ‘Modern Work by Sculptors and Painters’.
Davie travelled widely, unlike other British artists who made straight for Paris and stayed there, Davie ventured further afield. His experience of Switzerland, Italy and Spain was transformative, as revealed in the journals the artist compiled between April 1948 and March 1949 charting his encounters with art and nature and the development of his creative sensibility and in Venice became influenced by other painters of the period, such as Paul Klee, Jackson Pollock and Joan Miro, as well as by a wide range of cultural symbols. In particular, his painting style owes much to his affinity with Zen. Having read Eugen Herrigel book Zen in the Art of Archery (1953), he assimilated the spontaneity which Zen emphasises. Declaring that the spiritual path is incompatible with planning ahead, he attempted to paint as automatically as possible, which was intended to bring forth elements of his unconscious. In this, he shared a vision with surrealist painters such as Miró, and he was also fascinated by the work of psychoanalyst Carl Jung. nIn Paris he encountered modernist paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Arp. Like Pollock, many of Davie's works were executed by standing above the painting, which was laid on the ground. He added layers of paint until sometimes the original painting had been covered over many times. Despite the speed at which he worked (he usually had several paintings on the go at once), however, he was adamant that his images are not pure abstraction, but all have significance as symbols. Championing the primitive, he saw the role of the artist as akin to that of the shaman, and remarked upon how disparate cultures have adopted common symbols in their visual languages. In 1958 Alan Davie had his first solo exhibition at Wakefield Art Gallery, which went on to tour nationally and launched Davie’s career. A young attendee at the Wakefield exhibition was David Hockney, then a student at Bradford College of Art.
The exhibition was a pivotal influence on Hockney’s artistic development and shortly after this visit, Hockney moved to London to take up a place at the Royal College of Art. In addition to painting, whether on canvas or paper (he has stated that he prefers to work on paper), Davie produced several screenprints. He found a public for his work on the continent and in America some time before the British art public could reconcile itself to his mixture of ancient and newly invented symbols. In his lectures Davie stressed the importance of improvisation as his chosen method. His stance was that of an inspired soothsayer resisting the inroads of rational civilization. His unique surrealism style is marked by vibrant colours, semi-abstract shapes, and a captivating interplay of cross-cultural symbolism. Musically, Davie also played piano, cello and bass clarinet. In the early 1970s his interest in free improvisation led to a close association with the percussionist Tony Oxley. His paintings have also inspired music by others, notably the bassist and composer Barry Guy. Davie was invited to make a mural in 1987 for French artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Garavicchio, Tuscany, brings together many aspects of his varied practice. Davie designed the jacket for R.W. Feachem's book Prehistoric Scotland, published by Batsford in 1963. The design was based upon motifs found on Pictish symbol stones. He died aged 93 in Hertfordshire, England on 5 April 2014. On 29 October 1947, in Edinburgh, Davie married Janet Gaul, a ceramic potter, artist, and designer. Together they had one child, a daughter, Jane, born in 1949
Art collections and museums owning work by Alan Davie include the Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, National Galleries of Scotland, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Tate Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, Harvard University Art Museums, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, The Priseman Seabrook Collection, San Diego Museum of Art, Southampton City Art Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield and Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum.
Discography
The Alan Davie Music Workshop (ADMW, 1970)
Suite for Prepared Piano and Mini Drums (ADMW, 1971)
Bird Through the Wall (ADMW, 1971)
Phantom in the Room (ADMW, 1971)
The Tony Oxley/Alan Davie Duo (ADMW, 1975)
Elaboration of Particulars (Confront, 2021
His work is amongst the finest of modern British printmaking alongside Richard Smith, Joe Tilson, Malcolm Morley, Terry Frost, and Howard Hodgkin.
- Creator:Alan Davie (1920, British)
- Creation Year:1982
- Dimensions:Height: 37 in (93.98 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Surfside, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU38214495702
Alan Davie
Painter, born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire. His father was also an artist and Davie junior was encouraged to enrol at Edinburgh College of Art, 1937-40, where he was taught by John Maxwell. Following army service with the Royal Artillery in World War II, Davie worked variously as a jazz musician, textile designer, potter and as a jewellery designer. In 1946, he held his first solo exhibition at Grant's Bookshop, Edinburgh and soon after travelled around Europe meeting Peggy Guggenheim which was to broaden his artistic outlook. His work over the years was much influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Oriental mysticism and Indian mythology. His first London show took place at Gimpel Fils, London in 1950 and his first New York exhibition at the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York in 1956. During the 1960's and later many of Davie's drawings appeared in print form executed by the Curwen Press and also were seen in the eclectic magazine Motif. Davie was awarded the Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University 1957-59 and in 1962 he held a retrospective exhibition in Amsterdam at the Stedelijk Museum. Other retrospective exhibition venues include the McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, 1992, RWA Bristol, 1992, Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1993 and 'Jingling Space' held at Tate St. Ives. This highlighted Davie’s works from the 1930’s to the millennium. Examples of his work are in the collections of the City Arts Centre, Fleming Collection, Harrogate Art Gallery, Jerwood Foundation, Lillie Art Gallery, MoMa, New York, Museums Sheffield, NCAS, Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, Tate Gallery, Towner Art Gallery, Ulster Museum, University of Warwick Art Collection, V&A, Worcester Art Gallery and major museums around the world including MoMA, New York. Alan Davies was appointed CBE in 1972, a senior member of the RA in 2012 and a major exhibition of his work opened at the Tate Britain a few days after his death.
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