ALAN DAVIE (born 28 September 1920, Grangemouth, Scotland died 5 April 2014, Hertfordshire) was one of Britain’s most renowned and internationally acclaimed artists of the post-war era, whose career spanned nine decades. A multi-faceted creative spirit, Davie created his own unique artistic language, related to the diversity of his interests in world cultures, primitive art, Zen Buddhism, modern music and gliding. Distinguished by spontaneity, exuberant colour and improvisation, Davie's work has been shown frequently and with great success for over 70 years and his paintings have been included in some of the most eminent private and public collections around the world.
Painting has taught me much, mainly that it is impossible to paint a picture, and that if a picture is to be, it must happen in spite of me rather than because of me. Yet only through the me (the individual) can the formless psyche find substance. The work when it happens will be a revelation of something hitherto hidden.
Alan Davie (extract from Towards a New Definition of Art, Some Notes on (NOW) Painting, October 1959)
This catalogue has been published to accompany the exhibition at Alan Wheatley Art Alan Davie: An Inner Compulsion. Retrospective Exhibition 18 April – 4 May 2018
ALAN DAVIE An Inner Compulsion
ALAN DAVIE An Inner Compulsion
Alan Davie in his studio at Gables, Hertfordshire, 2011
‘It’s an urge, an intensity, a kind of sexual need […]. I don’t practise painting or drawing as an art, in the sense of artifice, of making an imitation of something. It’s something I do from an inner compulsion that has to come out.’ Alan Davie
AN INNER COMPULSION THE QUEST FOR WHOLENESS IN THE ART OF ALAN DAVIE
This enigmatic question was the question of my life! Did I prefer the part to the whole or the whole to the part? No, I wanted both: The part of the whole and the whole and that this should transcend all contradiction Gunnar Ekelöf (1907 – 1968) When Alan Davie died in April 2014, some months short of his 94 th birthday, Scotland, Britain and the world lost one of the finest artists of our times. At the subsequent summer memorial service held at Tate Britain, figures from the highest echelon of British arts curatorship and administration, Sir Nicholas Serota and Chris Stephens, delivered appreciative, suitably literate speeches. Davie's close friends, the poet Michael Horovitz and the composer James Coxson, both rendered moving homage, and there was a fine performance from contemporary music practitioners Barry Guy and Maya Homburger – further friends of Alan's who had long drawn inspiration from his work. But it was Davie's fellow artist and friend, the painter Albert Irwin, who furnished the most resonant moment of all, when he concluded his tribute thus: “I never met Picasso. But I knew Alan Davie.” Long before his death in 1973, the protean Picasso had acquired the sort of fame which could bring to mind the poet Rilke's observation that fame is but the sum of misunderstandings which gather around a name, around a reputation. Fortunately perhaps, Davie's fame remains as yet some distance from that of Picasso – whose life-long conviction that “art can only be erotic” finds potent echo in Davie's revelation that his art arose from an inner compulsion, “a kind of need, an intensity, a kind of sexual need”. However: as with Picasso, fame has long rendered partly obscure the true or total value of Davie's multivalent achievement. One of the many virtues of this retrospective at Alan Wheatley Art – the third substantial exhibition the gallery has devoted to Davie – is that it furnishes a welcome opportunity to take fresh stock of the full range and resonance of the work of a genuinely extra-ordinary artist: a true creative servant – a shaman, even – of the imaginal realm, whose provocative, life-long belief that art has nothing to do with self-expression continues to raise eyebrows and strike sparks. In common with Still Life with Bowl of Fruit (1937) the early, deeply reflective Self Portrait from the late 1930s evinces an exceptional level of technical command for one so young. These were the years when the dreaming and introspective Davie so evident in that self-portrait would come increasingly under the spell of jazz – a spell first cast by Coleman Hawkins, the father of jazz tenor saxophone whose 1938 solo performance in Edinburgh changed Davie's world forever. For all Davie's later appreciation of a considerable range of visual art, poetry and early, classical and contemporary avant-garde music from what is sometimes called “the straight scene”, it is jazz which remains the crucial initial key to an understanding of his art.
When Davie died, I wrote an obituary for Jazz Journal, the specialist British magazine. It seemed only fitting for the man who had created such signature paintings as the 1961 Lush Life (shown at the major Musée quai du Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris exhibition The Century of Jazz in 2009), Portrait of Sonny Rollins (1965) and Jazz By Moonlight (1966). In this Alan Wheatley Art retrospective, work after splendid work testifies to the sensuous – and sensual – impact of jazz on Davie, e.g., Red Fireball No.2 (1957), Reach for Joy No.1 (1960), Kicking the Gong Around (1962) and Wheels for the Sweet Life (1965). Davie played tenor saxophone in big bands in the 1940s and in the 1970s led his own small group on piano and various other instruments, for an Arts Council tour of Britain. He worked with such notable figures of the British jazz world as Evan Parker, Ray Warleigh, Chris Laurence, Alan Jackson, Tony Oxley and Frank Perry and recorded five albums for his own label, the Alan Davie Music Workshop. In his last years, Davie relished private jam sessions on piano with, e.g., his fellow-Scots, the distinguished saxophonists Bobby Wellins and Tommy Smith. As Smith remarked in that Jazz Journal obituary: “Alan was a dynamic package, a guy who lived life to the full and certainly wasn’t scared of heights. A true creative improviser!”. When Davie made his international breakthrough in the mid-to-late 1950s – following the earlier purchase of some works by Peggy Guggenheim – it seemed only natural that art historians and critics saw the gestural spontaneity and visceral colour of Davie's work as a British response to (or equivalent of) the seemingly jazz-flecked Abstract Expressionism of such diverse New York School painters as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline (all of whom Davie met in New York at one time or another). Davie's position in the history of art was thus secured – in both a positive and a negative sense. Positive, in that it was clear to anyone with an eye for what was happening in the New York avant-garde of the 1950s that Davie was right up there with the best in the world: “You're one of us!” the Abstract Expressionists exclaimed. Negative, in that the association of Davie with both jazz and Abstract Expressionism could tend, over time, to lock Davie's work into a reading of it as superficial as it was partial. The jazz bassist Ray Brown (long a key member of the Oscar Peterson trio) remarked once that too many people are inclined to believe that jazz musicians simply make it up as they go along, rolling out of bed every day with a God-given ability to play the blues in the key of D-flat. De Kooning told a newspaper reporter that it was his early classical training that had enabled him, eventually, to attain the sweeping freedoms of his latter-day work. For all that Davie spoke so cogently about his search for the sort of beauty that lay far beyond the beautiful, the present show encourages us to consider how much the flowing colour and graphic spontaneity so characteristic of this artist spring, in part at least, from a long-transmuted but nonetheless fructifying foundation of cornerstone matters of drawing and composition: witness the aforementioned Still Life oil from 1937 or, from two years later, the coloured chalk drawing that is Seated Nude. Similarly: Davie's seemingly endless capacity to conjure the dialectic of simplicity and complexity, flat and deep space – a dialectic which distinguishes such various, mythically oriented work as Tongue Teaser (1960), Moon Maiden Walls No.2 (1970), Fisherman's Myth No.13 (1974), Magic Ribbon (1993), A Season Turned No.2 (2005) and A Storm
Cometh (2011) – was a capacity born not out of thin air, but rather from a life-long, often tough and challenging engagement with quintessential questions concerning the interplay of gridded and free-flowing space, the push and the pull of hot and cool colour. It is an interplay luminously evident in such striking early works as In the Night Blue Turns to Red (1950) and Eye on the Sea (1951). It takes but the briefest consideration of all such titles to be reminded how much the mythic and the poetic dimensions of life meant to Davie – a painter who published a good many penetrating, Zen-touched reflections on his art and also a considerable number of congruent poems. Some of these reflections and poems were gathered together and published in the Lund Humphries monographs on the artist, and they continue to repay much re-reading. Like Braque, Davie was intensely suspicious of those who would over-verbalise art, forgetting thereby that, as Braque put it, “to define a thing is to substitute the definition of the thing for the thing itself.” For Davie, again as for Braque, the only part of a work of art that mattered, ultimately, was the part about which nothing could be said. And yet: perhaps only Joan Miró, Mediterranean counterpart to the mythopoetic Scot, produced such a cornucopia of suggestive titles as did Davie – with neither artist, of course, implying in the least that the pure presence or visual impact of a painting might in any way be secondary to the import of its title. Consider here, e.g., the magnificent oil that is The True Meaning of the Wheel No.2 (1961). There was an especially potent mythic dimension to much of the work of the New York School, sometimes involving tragic overtones, as in the late work of Rothko. The astonishing thing about Davie is that he managed for so long to stay in touch with the deep and demanding worlds of mask, myth and magic – e.g., Bird Alphabet (1955) and Indicating the Six Feathers (2006) – succumbing neither to the temptation of any facile or inflated yea-saying nor any psychologically draining negativity, and turning none of his painterly intimations of what Miró called “the magic sense of things” into anything merely illustrative or formulaic. Whatever its medium or scale, and whatever period it be from, a Davie is a Davie, instantly recognisable and, as such, endlessly valuable. The work is always alive, always different. Familiar yet strange; entrancing, and laced often with an affirmative humour, even as it may be provocative, disturbing. Might we attribute this to the richness of Davie's own cultural background? As early as 1958, in the catalogue essay which he wrote for Davie's Wakefield and Whitechapel retrospective, Bryan Robertson drew attention to the Celtic dimension in Davie. Subsequent commentators such as the writers John Griffiths and Lynne Green and the painter Ian McKeever have elaborated this idea and many have wondered if there is not a clear connection to Pictish art here: Davie did, after all, supply the front cover image for a book on prehistoric Scotland (Batsford, 1963). The theme could be taken further by looking at the various marvellous pieces of silver jewellery which Davie made early in life. The key point is that, in contrast to the primary interest in mark making and the pure – albeit personal and richly diversified – painterly process which so exercised the Abstract Expressionists, Davie was always more interested in conjuring up, and engaging with, an emergent image. In this regard, it could be – as I argued in my catalogue essay for the show Paintings 1950-2000 which Davie had at The Cobra Museum, Amstelveen in 2001 – that he had more in common with European and Nordic Cobra artists such as Karel Appel and Asger Jorn than he did with the American Expressionists Pollock and de Kooning.
Fortunately for those who are drawn to Davie, all such different readings can co-exist. There need be no exclusivity of interpretation, no definitive choosing. As anyone can attest who has seen the riveting films which his wife Bili made in the early 1960s of Davie at work in the studio, pure spontaneous improvisation and the cultivation of an emergent image were but two organic aspects of a single – yet, once again, multiple – quest for Davie. Intensely physical, or sensuous – “You just have to love paint, to want to touch it, feel it, eat it, even, almost as though you were making love to a beautiful woman”, he said once – yet deeply spiritual, even metaphysical in nature; rooted in a Celtic or Northern sensibility, while open to currents and confluences of art, myth and poetry the world over, the art of Alan Davie defies any and all reductive categorisation.
Alan Davie’s paint trolley
If there was a compulsive element to Davie's art – and there certainly was – it was the sort of inner, mysterious compulsion which served to open things up rather than close them down. And to open them up in the most expansive way. Speaking in 1989, Davie suggested that, “Basically the creative state would appear to amount to a kind of religious communion with the GREAT ETERNAL. Here it is apparent to me that what I am doing is fundamentally the same as artists of remote times – the same as artists in tribal society – engaged in a shamanistic conjuring up of visions which will link us metaphorically with mysterious and spiritual forces normally beyond our apprehension.” Concepts or ideas of the Great Eternal are encountered but rarely in current critical discourse about the arts. When critics speak about time, they usually prefer to handle it in portions, speaking, e.g., of early, middle and late periods in an artist's work – and perhaps expressing a view as to the merits of each such stage of that work. On a broader front, they might enjoy the sort of comparative exercise which sought to establish the truth or otherwise of the sort of proposition that would judge Picasso the greatest draughtsman of the 20 th century and Matisse his counterpart in colour. But, the Great Eternal? No thank you … Clearly, one can speak of various periods in Davie's oeuvre. However: just as graphic élan and colouristic verve constantly feed each other in the work, so are the various periods of the compulsive, multi-layered odyssey that was the life-work of Alan Davie perhaps appreciated best – understood and relished – in the mysterious, refractive and refreshing light of each other. And who would wish to – or have the capacity to – circumscribe the ultimate impact or implication of any such light? The part or the whole; the whole or the part: as the Swedish poet and mystic Gunnar Ekelöf said, NO! – rather, each in each other, and that this should involve no contradiction. In 'A Little Smoke Signal’, the tribute to Davie which he wrote for The Quest For The Miraculous, the 1993 Lund Humphries publication on Davie, the Scottish poet and thinker Kenneth White elaborated the point when he spoke of how, in life and in art, we may encounter “the empty way and the full way, the austere-hyperborean way and the tropical-tantric way. There need be no excluding, no choosing. Left hand, right hand. Caledonian gulls, Cornish crows, Caribbean parrots: one world, terrraqueous and windy, and a body-mind, cosmopoetically, in action […] All that increases the (de)light of being on earth.” The (de)light of being on earth … Like (sadly, now the late) Albert Irwin, I never met Picasso. But like Bert, again, I was fortunate enough to know Alan Davie. And to come to relish – as we may do in this superb exhibition – the many, many fruits of that mysterious compulsion which led this surpassing artist ever on, ever deeper, towards the very marrow of life.
Michael Tucker March 2018
1 Self Portrait late 1930s Oil on wood 69 x 56 cm / 27 x 22 inches Signed lower left Opus O.9A
(verso Flowers in a Jug)
2 Still Life with Bowl of Fruit 1937 Oil on wood 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches Signed upper left; also signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1B
3 Untitled (Seated Nude) 17 October 1938 Pencil on paper 38 x 28 cm / 15 x 11 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the opus number upper right Opus D.38-2
4 Seated Nude 1939 Sanguine chalk on paper 38 x 25.5 cm / 15 x 10 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the opus number lower right; also signed upper right Opus D.39-8
5 In the Night Blue Turns to Red 1950 Oil on masonite 122 x 122 cm / 48 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.57
EXHIBITED 1950, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London, cat.no.57. 1951, Warner Theatre, Leicester Square, London, presented by Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, cat.no.7. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London, 1950, cat.no.57. Exhibition catalogue, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1951, cat.no.7. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.41, ill.pl.16 (catalogued as: In the Night, Blue Changes (Turns) to Red). Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.57 (catalogued as: In the Night, Blue Changes to Red).
6 Eye on the Sea 1951 Oil on board 99 x 117 cm / 39 x 46 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.72
EXHIBITED 1955, ‘Daily Express’ Young Artists Exhibition, The New Burlington Galleries, London, no.1. 1959, Seven British Painters of Today, Welsh Committee of the Arts Council exhibition touring to Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Swansea. 1965, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, cat.no.7. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 1965, cat.no.7. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.49 (catalogued as: Eye of the Sea). Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.72 (catalogued as: Eye of the Sea).
7 5 P.M. February 1952 Oil on masonite 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Dated upper left; also signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.81
EXHIBITED 1952, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London, cat.no.41. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London, 1952, cat.no.41. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.55 (catalogued as: 60 x 48 inches).
8 Untitled 1954 Oil on paper 49 x 38 cm / 19 Âź x 15 inches
9
Untitled 1954 Oil on paper 47.5 x 38 cm / 18 ž x 15 inches
10 Girl 1954 Watercolour 57 x 44.5 cm / 22 ½ x 17 ½ inches Opus G.1B
EXHIBITED 1958, Alan Davie: First Retrospective Exhibition, Wakefield City Art Gallery, Wakefield, cat.no.32 touring to Nottingham University, Nottingham, cat.no.26; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, cat.no.33; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, cat.no.30. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Wakefield City Art Gallery, Wakefield, 1958, cat.no.32. Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Nottingham University, Nottingham, 1958, cat.no.26. Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1958, cat.no.33. Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1958, cat.no.30.
11 The Entry of the White Diamond 1955 Oil on masonite 160 x 193 cm / 63 x 76 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.105
LITERATURE Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.76 (catalogued as: 1954).
12 Look In June 1955 Oil on board 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.111
EXHIBITED 1960-1961, Recent Painting by Six British Artists, The British Council exhibition touring to Latin America: Mexico City, Mexico; Lima, Peru; Caracas, Venezuela and East Africa: Nairobi, Kenya; Makerere College, Uganda; Salisbury, Rhodes Gallery, South Rhodesia, cat.no.4. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Recent Painting by Six British Artists, The British Council, London, 1960, cat.no.4. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.82 (catalogued as: Look In (Painting June 1955)). Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.111.
13 Bird Alphabet 1955 Oil on board 122 x 91.5 cm / 48 x 36 inches Signed and dated upper right; also signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.112
(verso)
14 Diamond Balance 1956 Oil on board 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.170
LITERATURE Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.132, ill. (B+W). Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.170.
15 Red Fireball No.2 February 1957 Oil on board 52 x 65 cm / 20 ½ x 25 ½ inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.G.12
16 Snake’s Objective March 1957 Oil on masonite 122 x 101.5 cm / 48 x 40 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.208
EXHIBITED 1964, Alan Davie, City of Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand. 1964, Three British Painters, The British Council exhibition touring to Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, New Zealand, cat.no.25. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Three British Painters, The British Council, London, 1964, cat.no.25. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.163.
17 Tees Dream No.12 1959 Oil on paper 42 x 53.5 cm / 16 ½ x 21 inches Signed and dated lower right Opus O.90A
EXHIBITED 1960, Alan Davie, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Essen, Germany. 1967, Newlyn Society of Artists, Newlyn.
18 Yes for the Red Bird 1959 Oil on paper on board 39.5 x 61 cm / 15 ½ x 24 inches Signed and dated lower left Opus O.G.31A
19 Red’s Feather Machine 1959 Oil on paper on board 29 x 46 cm / 11 ½ x 18 inches Signed and dated upper left Opus O.G.60B
PROVENANCE Private collection, UK. EXHIBITED 1964, Alan Davie, Crestine Art Gallery, Edinburgh, cat.no.16. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Crestine Art Gallery, Edinburgh, 1964, cat.no.16.
20 Targets Attracted by a Red Arrow 1959 Oil on board 30.5 x 79 cm / 12 x 31 inches Signed and dated upper right; also signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number on the label verso Opus O.G.60A
EXHIBITED 1961, Malerie und Plastik aus Leeds, Leeds-Dortmund Exchanges Exhibition, Stadthaus Untere Galerie, Dortmund, Germany. 1964, Alan Davie, Crestine Art Gallery, Edinburgh, cat.no.9. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Crestine Art Gallery, Edinburgh, 1964, cat.no.9.
21 A Night with the Smiling Arab March 1960 Oil on masonite 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.277
EXHIBITED 1963, Alan Davie, Galleria La Medusa, Rome, Italy. 1964, Alan Davie, Crestine Art Gallery, Edinburgh. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Crestine Art Gallery, Edinburgh, 1964. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.227.
22 Tongue Teaser April 1960 Oil on masonite 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed and dated verso; also dated and inscribed with the title on the stretcher Opus O.286
EXHIBITED 1961, Alan Davie, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA. LITERATURE Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.237.
23 Smoke Signals No.2 September 1960 Oil on canvas 183 x 152.5 cm / 72 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.329
PROVENANCE Private collection, Chicago, USA. EXHIBITED 1961, Alan Davie, Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, USA. 1982, Alan Davie, Arcade Gallery, Harrogate. 1982, Alan Davie: Retrospective, Pao Sui Loong Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (catalogued as: Smoke Signal No.2, 1961, 76 x 60 inches). Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.278. Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.329.
24 Reach for Joy No.1 October 1960 Oil on board 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed and dated verso Opus O.312
EXHIBITED 1961, Alan Davie, Gimpel Gils, London, cat.no.10. 1961, Alan Davie, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA. 1963, Drayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, USA, cat.no.5. 1967, Alan Davie, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA, cat.no.9. 1974, Alan Davie, Harlow Playhouse Gallery, Harlow. 1982, Alan Davie, Arcade Gallery, Harrogate. 1989, Alan Davie, Major Works of the Sixties, Gimpel Fils, London, cat.no.5. 1990, Alan Davie, Madrid Art Fair, Madrid, Spain. 1990, Alan Davie, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, USA. LITERATURE Robert MELVILLE. Alan Davie, Motif 7, Summer 1961, Shenval Press, London, 1961, ill.pl.16 (B+W). Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Gimpel Gils, London, 1961, cat.no.10, ill. (B+W). Robert MELVILLE. Alan Davie, Gimpel Gils, London, 1961, ill.p.16 (B+W). Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA, 1967, cat.no.9. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.262, ill.pl.60 (catalogued as: November 1960). Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Major Works of the Sixties, Gimpel Fils, London, 1989, cat.no.5, ill. (catalogued as: November 1960, Opus O.313). Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.312, ill.pl.62 (catalogued as: November 1960).
25 The True Meaning of the Wheel No.2 October 1961 Oil on canvas 183 x 152.5 cm / 72 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.414
EXHIBITED 1962, Alan Davie: Retrospective, FBA Galleries, London and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, cat.no.70. 1962, Kompass II: Contemporary Paintings in London, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, cat.no.17. 1964, Young British Painters, The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, USA, cat.no.8. 1982, Alan Davie, Arcade Gallery, Harrogate. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Retrospective, FBA Galleries, London and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1962, cat.no.70. Exhibition catalogue, Kompass II: Contemporary Paintings in London, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1962, cat.no.17, ill (B+W). Exhibition catalogue, Young British Painters, The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, USA, 1964, cat.no.8, ill. (B+W). Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.354.
26 Kicking the Gong Around June 1962 Oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm / 60 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.480
EXHIBITED 1963, Alan Davie, 7th Bienal de Bellas Artes de SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, cat.no.15. 1963-1964, Alan Davie, The British Council exhibition touring to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela. 1965, Alan Davie, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany, cat.no.11. 1965-1966, Alan Davie, Court Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, touring to Galerie Bleue, Stockholm, Sweden; Galleri Haaken, Oslo, Norway, cat.no.11. 1966, Alan Davie, Castle Museum, Norwich, cat.no.5. 1966, Alan Davie, Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, The British Council, London, 1963, cat.no.15. Robert MELVILLE. The Unintentionalism of Alan Davie, Quadrum 15, 1964, p.53, ill. (B+W). Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany, 1965, cat.no.11. Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Court Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1965, cat.no.11. Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Castle Museum, Norwich, 1966, cat.no.5. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.416. Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.480.
27 Boxes for Moon Dust February 1963 Oil on canvas 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.G.236B
28 Boxes for Joy February 1963 Oil on canvas 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches Inscribed with the title on the stretcher Opus O.G.237A
29 Flyaway Skull February 1963 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.514B
30 Little Resurrection March 1963 Oil on canvas 122 x 101.5 cm / 48 x 40 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.517
LITERATURE Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.452.
31 Rocker for Birds March 1963 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.520A
32 Double Swinger March 1963 Oil on canvas (diptych) 183 x 305 cm / 72 x 120 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.520B
LITERATURE Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.520B.
33 Golden Cow November 1963 Oil on canvas (diptych) 152.5 x 244 cm / 60 x 96 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.526B
EXHIBITED 1966, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London, cat.no.4. 1982, Alan Davie, Arcade Gallery, Harrogate. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London, 1966, cat.no.4. Alan BOWNESS (ed.). Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1967, cat.no.467. Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.526B.
34 Golden Tree No.2 October 1965 Oil on board 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.566A
35 Wheels for the Sweet Life November 1965 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.568D
EXHIBITED 1966, Alan Davie, Castle Museum, Norwich, cat.no.17. 1993, Alan Davie, Barbican Art Gallery, London, cat.no.67. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Castle Museum, Norwich, 1966, cat.no.17. Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.568D. Michael TUCKER (ed.). Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous, University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, 1993, cat.no.67, ill.pl.12.
.
36 Oriental Dance November 1961 / November 1965 Oil on canvas 122 x 214 cm / 48 x 84 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.570B
37 Flaming Wedding Cake October 1966 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.573
38 Rattles for Cupid No.1 January 1967 Oil on board 101.5 x 122 cm / 40 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with opus number verso Opus O.579E
39 Who’s Baby 1967 Oil on canvas 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches Signed and dated verso Opus O.G.320A
40 Smile of the Cameleon No.1 September 1967 Oil on canvas 45 x 56 cm / 18 x 22 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.G.358 EXHIBITED 1993, Alan Davie, ACA Galleries, New York, USA.
41 Serpent Spinner No.5 July 1968 Oil on canvas 152.5 x 183 cm / 60 x 72 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.591 EXHIBITED 1969, Alan Davie, Paintings, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA, cat.no.25. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Paintings, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA, 1969, cat.no.25. Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.591 (catalogued as: Serpentspinner No.5).
42 Miraculous Cross March 1968 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.592D
PROVENANCE Private collection, New York, USA. LITERATURE Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.592D.
43 Sun Worship 1968 Oil on canvas 56 x 66 cm / 22 x 26 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.595E
EXHIBITED 1993, Alan Davie, ACA Galleries, New York, USA.
44 Sweet Flapper August 1968 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.599
45 Moon Maiden Walls No.2 March 1970 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.623
EXHIBITED 1970, Alan Davie, Paintings 1969-1970, Gimpel Fils, London, cat.no.37. 1974, Alan Davie, Playhouse Gallery, Harlow. 1984, Alan Davie, Loft Gallery, Stanstead Abbots. 1993, Alan Davie, Barbican Art Gallery, London, cat.no.71. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Paintings 1969-1970, Gimpel Fils, London, 1970, cat.no.37, ill. (B+W). Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.623. Michael TUCKER (ed.). Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous, University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, 1993, cat.no.71, ill.pl.11.
46 Lute Player in a Trance February 1970 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.637
47 Fisherman’s Myth No.13 December 1974 Oil on canvas 101.5 x 122 cm / 40 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.787
48 Transformation of the Guru Mask April 1971 / December 1974 Oil on canvas 152.5 x 183 cm / 60 x 72 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.789
LITERATURE Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.789.
49 Monument to the Caribs No.23 October 1976 Oil on canvas 101.5 x 122 cm / 40 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.845
EXHIBITED 1977, Alan Davie: Homage to the Caribs, Gimpel Fils, London, cat.no.7. 1977, Alan Davie: Homage to the Caribs and Other Recent Paintings, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA, cat.no.7. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Homage to the Caribs, Gimpel Fils, London, 1977, cat.no.7, ill. Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie: Homage to the Caribs and Other Recent Paintings, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA, 1977, cat.no.7, ill. Douglas HALL and Michael TUCKER. Alan Davie, Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat.no.845.
50 Little Doge Fire July 1978 / July 1979 Oil on canvas 51 x 76 cm / 20 x 30 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.894
EXHIBITED 1980, Alan Davie, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA. 1982, Alan Davie, Rosenberg Fine Arts, Toronto, Canada. LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Alan Davie, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA, 1980.
51 Homage to Homo Australis No.13 (Owl) September 1981 Oil on canvas 122 x 101.5 cm / 48 x 40 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.984A
52 Cosmic Force in the Village September 1986 Oil on board 51 x 41 cm / 20 x 16 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title lower left Opus O.1094
53 Los Observadores del Cielo a la Tierra (Divine Play) 1988 Oil on canvas 122 x 101.5 cm / 48 x 40 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1146
54 Hopi Studies No.43 1992 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1186
55 Homage to an Earth Goddess No.2 1992 Oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm / 60 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1204
56 Bird Dream 1993 Oil on canvas 96.5 x 76 cm / 38 x 30 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1244
57 Magic Ribbon 1993 Oil on canvas 101.5 x 122 cm / 40 x 48 inches Opus O.1253
58 A Season Turned No.2 2005 Oil on canvas 76 x 96.5 cm / 30 x 38 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1750A
59 Indicating the Six Feathers 2006 Oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 48 x 60 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.1803
60 In Such Cases 2008 Oil on board 37 x 32 cm / 14 ½ x 12 ½ inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title verso Opus O.1980
61 Magic Magnifying Glass 2008 Oil on board 37 x 32 cm / 14 ½ x 12 ½ inches Signed and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.2045
62 A Storm Cometh 2011 Oil on canvas 122 x 101.5 cm / 48 x 40 inches Signed, dated and inscribed with the title and opus number verso Opus O.2334
63 Drawings 2014 Pen on paper 21 x 14.5 cm / 8 ¼ x 5 ¾ inches Signed lower left and dated lower right Opus D.114-14
2014 Pen on paper 21 x 14.5 cm / 8 ¼ x 5 ¾ inches Signed lower left and dated lower right Opus D.115-14
February 2014 Pen on paper 21 x 14.5 cm / 8 ¼ x 5 ¾ inches Signed lower left and dated lower right Opus D.119-14
BIOGRAPHY 1920 1937 - 1940 1938 1941 1941 - 1946 1942 1943 1945 1947 1948 1949 1950 1953 - 1956 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 - 1980 1963 - 1970 1966 1967 1971 1971 - 1979 1972 1974 1974 - 1991 1975 1977
1979 1982 1987 1991 1992 1994 1995 2002 2012 2014
Born in Grangemouth, Scotland Trained at Edinburgh College of Art Awarded Andrew Grant Scholarship Awarded Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship Military service with the Royal Artillery Received Guthrie Award for the best painting by a young artist at the Scottish Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Edinburgh Began to write poetry; played alto saxophone in jazz groups Visited Klee and Picasso exhibitions in London Touring as a professional jazz musician playing tenor saxophone with Tommy Sampson’s Orchestra Married Janet ‘Bili’ Gaul, an artist-potter Travelled around Europe Met Peggy Guggenheim who purchased of one of his works from the Venice show Made jewellery and silverware, performed as a jazz musician Birth of daughter Jane Met Herbert Read and Roland Penrose Taught at Central School of Arts and Crafts, London Interested in Zen Buddhism and oriental mysticism Met leading Abstract Expressionists: de Kooning, Kline, Motherwell, Pollock and Rothko Awarded Gregory Fellowship in Painting at the University of Leeds Elected member of the London Group Painting purchased by the Tate Gallery, London Taught at Central School of Arts and Crafts, London Pursued passion for gliding in 2000 hours in England, Switzerland and the USA Experimented in lithography Awarded First Prize at the International Graphics Exhibition, Cracow, Poland Monograph published by Lund Humphries edited by Alan Bowness First public recital of music, Gimpel Fils Gallery, London First record published by Alan Davie Music Workshop Recitals and recordings of spontaneous music by Alan Davie Music Workshop Awarded CBE (Commander of the British Empire) Berlin School Murals commissioned by architect Peter Haupt Tapestry design commissioned by Barry Cronan, executed in Ireland Concert tours in UK with the Tony Oxley Sextet Wintered annually in St. Lucia painting gouaches Music concert in Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France Received Saltire Award for the mosaic for the town of Grangemouth, Scotland Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London Honoured by the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (HRSA) Visited Australia and Bali Taught at summer school at Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver, Canada Received Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil Elected member of the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Became Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London Monograph published by Lund Humphries with essays by Douglas Hall and Michael Tucker Awarded Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, Faculty of Art and Design, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Tapestry commissioned by Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Australia Awarded Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters at University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield Visiting Professor at University of Brighton School of Art Elected Senior Royal Academician Died in Hertfordshire, England
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1946 1948 1950 1956 1958 1961 1962 - 1963
1963 1968 1970 - 1971 1971 1972 1976 1977 1982 1986 1987 1988 1990 1992 1992 - 1995 1993
1996 1997
2000 - 2001 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2010 2011 2014
Grant’s Bookshop, Edinburgh Galleria Michelangelo, Florence, Italy subsequently shown at Galleria Sandri, Venice, Italy First solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils Gallery, London with subsequent exhibitions First American solo exhibition at Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York, USA First retrospective exhibition at Wakefield City Art Gallery, Wakefield, touring to Nottingham University, Nottingham; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, USA Retrospective exhibition at FBA Galleries, London, touring to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Kunsternes Hus, Oslo, Norway; Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany; Kunstgewerbeverein, Pforzheim, Germany and Kunsthalle, Berne, Switzerland Galleria La Medusa, Rome, Italy British section of 7th Bienal de Bellas Artes de São Paulo, Brazil, where awarded prize for Best Foreign Painter Retrospective exhibition at The Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh North American retrospective exhibition at University Art Museum of Texas, Austin, USA, touring to Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Canada and California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, USA 2nd Triennale of World Art, Delhi, India Edinburgh International Festival, retrospective exhibition at RSA Galleries, Edinburgh, touring to Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany and Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany Galleria La Medusa, Rome, Italy Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens, Greece Retrospective exhibition at Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, USA FIAC, Paris, France South West Galleries Association, touring eight cities in Scotland Galleri G, Helsingborg, Sweden Galerie Bork, Copenhagen, Denmark Retrospective exhibition at McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, touring to Royal West of England Academy, Bristol The British Council exhibition of works on paper at The Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, touring to Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Tasmania and Australia Brighton Festival retrospective exhibition at University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, touring to Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, Hastings; Ramsgate Gallery, Ramsgate; The University Gallery, University of Northcumbria, Newcastle; The University Gallery, Nottingham; The Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling Retrospective exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery, London ACA Galleries, New York, USA Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow Drawing retrospective at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, touring to University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton Thomas Dane Gallery, London Retrospective exhibition at University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, touring to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; University of Edinburgh and Gimpel Fils, London Retrospective exhibition at Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amstelveen, The Netherlands Howard Gardens Gallery, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff James Hyman Fine Art, London Retrospective exhibition at Tate St Ives, Cornwall ACA Galleries, New York, USA Galleria Morone, Milan, Italy Thomas Dane Gallery, London ACA Galleries, New York, USA Gimpel Fils, London and James Hyman Gallery, London, touring to Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland and Galerie Gimpel & Müller, Paris, France Gimpel Fils, London to celebrate 90th birthday of the artist Alan Davie: To Uncover the Hidden Unknown, Alan Wheatley Art, London Alan Davie: The (Wild) Eye of Wonder, Alan Wheatley Art, London
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Australia Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Queensland Art Gallery Austria Museum des 20.Jahrhunderts, Vienna Brazil Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro Canada Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa France Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, St Paul-de-Vence Germany Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach Stäatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden Städtische Kunstgalerie, Bochum Ireland Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin Trinity College, Dublin Israel Museum of Tel Aviv Italy Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice The Netherlands Gemeente Museum, The Hague Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven New Zealand City of Auckland Art Gallery Norway Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo National Gallery, Oslo Portugal Berardo Museum, Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, Lisbon Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão, Fundacão Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon South Africa Iziko South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria South Korea National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul Sweden Konstmuseet, Gothenbugh Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Switzerland Kunsthaus, Berne Kunsthaus, Zurich Schaulager, Münchenstein, Basel United Kingdom Arts Council of Great Britain, London Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast Birmingham Museum Art Gallery, Birmingham British Council, London Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Museum, Bedford City Art Centre, Edinburgh City Art Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Wakefield City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth Contemporary Arts Society, London Edinburgh College of Art Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull Fitzwilliam Gallery, Cambridge Fleming Collection, London Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds Lillie Art Museum, Glasgow Maclaurin Gallery and Museum, Rozelle, Ayr Museum and Art Gallery, Kettering Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, Norwich Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, London Scottish Art Council, Edinburgh Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton Tate, London Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne Ulster Museum, Belfast University of Brighton University of Cambridge University of Durham University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne Victoria and Albert Museum, London Wakefield Art Gallery Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester United States Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Art Museum, Phoenix Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, Cambridge Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington Institute of Arts, Detroit Metropolitan Museum, New York Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Museum of Modern Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Norman Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma Princeton University, Princeton The St Louis Art Museum, St Louis Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford Washington University Gallery of Art, St Louis Washington University Museum, Washington Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
INDEX 1. Self Portrait
late 1930s
Oil on wood
69 x 56 cm
2. Still Life with Bowl of Fruit
1937
Oil on wood
51 x 61 cm
3. Untitled (Seated Nude)
1938
Pencil on paper
38 x 28 cm
4. Seated Nude
1939
Sanguine chalk on paper
38 x 25.5 cm
5. In the Night Blue Turns to Red
1950
Oil on masonite
122 x 122 cm
6. Eye on the Sea
1951
Oil on board
99 x 117 cm
7. 5 P.M.
1952
Oil on masonite
122 x 152.5 cm
8. Untitled
1954
Oil on paper
49 x 38 cm
9. Untitled
1954
Oil on paper
47.5 x 38 cm
10. Girl
1954
Watercolour
57 x 44.5 cm
11. The Entry of the White Diamond
1955
Oil on masonite
160 x 193 cm
12. Look In
1955
Oil on board
122 x 152.5 cm
13. Bird Alphabet
1955
Oil on board
122 x 91.5 cm
14. Diamond Balance
1956
Oil on board
122 x 152.5 cm
15. Red Fireball No.2
1957
Oil on board
52 x 65 cm
16. Snake’s Objective
1957
Oil on masonite
122 x 101.5 cm
17. Tees Dream No.12
1959
Oil on paper
42 x 53.5 cm
18. Yes for the Red Bird
1959
Oil on paper on board
39.5 x 61 cm
19. Red’s Feather Machine
1959
Oil on paper on board
29 x 46 cm
20. Targets Attracted by a Red Arrow
1959
Oil on board
30.5 x 79 cm
21. A Night with the Smiling Arab
1960
Oil on masonite
122 x 152.5 cm
22. Tongue Teaser
1960
Oil on masonite
122 x 152.5 cm
23. Smoke Signals No.2
1960
Oil on canvas
183 x 152.5 cm
24. Reach for Joy No.1
1960
Oil on board
122 x 152.5 cm
25. The True Meaning of the Wheel No.2
1961
Oil on canvas
183 x 152.5 cm
26. Kicking the Gong Around
1962
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 122 cm
27. Boxes for Moon Dust
1963
Oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm
28. Boxes for Joy
1963
Oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm
29. Flyaway Skull
1963
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
30. Little Resurrection
1963
Oil on canvas
122 x 101.5 cm
31. Rocker for Birds
1963
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
32. Double Swinger
1963
Oil on canvas (diptych)
183 x 305 cm
33. Golden Cow
1963
Oil on canvas (diptych)
152.5 x 244 cm
34. Golden Tree No.2
1965
Oil on board
122 x 152.5 cm
35. Wheels for the Sweet Life
1965
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
36. Oriental Dance
1961/65
Oil on canvas
122 x 214 cm
37. Flaming Wedding Cake
1966
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
38. Rattles for Cupid No.1
1967
Oil on board
101.5 x 122 cm
39. Who’s Baby
1967
Oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm
40. Smile of the Cameleon No.1
1967
Oil on canvas
45 x 56 cm
41. Serpent Spinner No.5
1968
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 183 cm
42. Miraculous Cross
1968
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
43. Sun Worship
1968
Oil on canvas
56 x 66 cm
44. Sweet Flapper
1968
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
45. Moon Maiden Walls No.2
1970
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
46. Lute Player in a Trance
1970
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
47. Fisherman’s Myth No.13
1974
Oil on canvas
101.5 x 122 cm
48. Transformation of the Guru Mask
1971/74
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 183 cm
49. Monument to the Caribs No.23
1976
Oil on canvas
101.5 x 122 cm
50. Little Doge Fire
1978/79
Oil on canvas
51 x 76 cm
51. Homage to Homo Australis No.13 (Owl)
1981
Oil on canvas
122 x 101.5cm
52. Cosmic Force in the Village
1986
Oil on board
51 x 41 cm
53. Los Observadores del Cielo a la Tierra (Divine Play) 1986
Oil on canvas
122 x 101.5 cm
54. Hopi Studies No.43
1992
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
55. Homage to an Earth Goddess No.2
1992
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 122 cm
56. Bird Dream
1993
Oil on canvas
96.5 x 76 cm
57. Magic Ribbon
1993
Oil on canvas
101.5 x 122 cm
58. A Season Turned No.2
2005
Oil on canvas
76 x 96.5 cm
59. Indicating the Six Feathers
2006
Oil on canvas
122 x 152.5 cm
60. In Such Cases
2008
Oil on board
37 x 32 cm
61. Magic Magnifying Glass
2008
Oil on board
37 x 32 cm
62. A Storm Cometh
2011
Oil on canvas
122 x 101.5 cm
2014
Pen on paper
21 x 14.5 cm
63. Drawings
each:
Poster for the Munich Olympic Games of 1972 Colour lithograph 1971 102 x 64 cm / 40 x 25 inches Signed and dated lower right
Published to accompany the exhibition Alan Davie: An Inner Compulsion. Retrospective Exhibition, 18 April – 4 May 2018 © ALAN WHEATLEY ART, 22 Mason’s Yard, Duke Street St. James’s, London SW1Y 6BU All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without first seeking the written permission of the copyright holders and of the publisher.
Artworks © The Estate of Alan Davie Photography © Paul Tucker Essay © Michael Tucker Research and catalogue design by Iwona Chrościelewska Print production by Oldacres, London
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 22 Mason’s Yard T: +44 (0)20 7930 1262
Duke Street St. James’s F: +44 (0)20 7839 8043
London SW1Y 6BU E: contact@alanwheatleyart.com
United Kingdom W: alanwheatleyart.com
MICHAEL TUCKER D. Litt. (born 1948) was Professor of Poetics at the University of Brighton until his retirement in 2012. The many exhibitions he curated there included Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous (1993), Alan Davie Drawings (1997) and Alan Davie: Small Paintings 1949-2000 (2001). The author, with Douglas Hall, of the monograph Alan Davie (Lund Humphries, London, 1992) he has written further about Davie in a number of catalogues and publications, including his own Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Shamanic Spirit in Twentieth-Century Art and Culture (Aquarian/HarperCollins, London & San Francisco, 1992), Printmaking Today (vol.14, nr.1, 2005) and Visual Culture in Britain (vol.11, nr.3, 2010). A regular contributor to Jazz Journal and the author of Jan Garbarek: Deep Song (Eastnote/University of Hull Press, 1998) he is a specialist in Nordic culture and in 2012 he was awarded the title of Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for ‘outstanding service in the interest of Norway’. He wrote the title catalogue essay for the April 2014 exhibition at Alan Wheatley Art, Alan Davie: The (Wild) Eye of Wonder.
Jacket illustration: Smoke Signals No.2 (Cat.23)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 22 Mason’s Yard T: +44 (0)20 7930 1262
Duke Street St. James’s F: +44 (0)20 7839 8043
London SW1Y 6BU E: contact@alanwheatleyart.com
United Kingdom W: alanwheatleyart.com