DAVIE, ALAN (British, b. 1920)

Davie was the first British painter - and perhaps the first of all European artists - to realise the vitality and significance of American Abstract Expressionism.
Having seen the Jackson Pollock paintings from Peggy Guggenheim’s collection in Venice in 1948, Davie was inspired to begin painting on a much larger scale, in an improvisatory way, with a vigorous, aggressive handling of paint. In 1950 he abandoned the human body as a measuring stick - from now on, the latter, when it appeared, was in such a divided state that it was hardly identifiable - assuming an intrinsic dimension, a step away from reality. His compositions, based on the authority of the features, similar to those of Klee enabled the painting to truly occupy the entirety of the plane. Alan Davie added to a concentration of colour - already a remarkable feature in Pollock’s work before 1945- the possibility of recognizing shapes, suggestions of movement and primitive, magical rituals.
Through repetition and gradual transformation, his shapes became purer over the years. His motifs became outlined and independent. During the 1960s they take strength in their biomorphism, but the geometric feature nevertheless regains its fervour, perhaps as the descendant of the Celtic plastic tendencies, with their linear simplicity, leading to a decorative abstraction, which in the end flirts with a surrealistic illustration.
The symbolic fields visited in the 1960s and up to the 1977 represent a cosmopolitan and purposely enigmatic cultural journey. Shapes from primitive art intermingle with Christian illustrations and Egyptian signs. Zen symbolism converses with an imagery of psychoanalytical archetypes - playing with initials, genital symbolism - or elements drawn from heraldry.
The very substance of Davie’s work is the construction of this allegorical ‘flux’, evidence of his visionary power.


Public collections include:
Guggenheim, Venice
Manchester City Art Gallery
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Tate, London