Exhibition of Paintings by Alan Davie
and grand opening of newly extended and refurbished gallery
11-20 June 2009
Alan Davie, who celebrates his 89th birthday this year is regarded as
one of the most influential image- makers in post-war British art.
Born in Grangemouth, Sterlingshire on September 28th 1920, the son of a painter and printmaker. Alan studied at Edinburgh College of Art (1937-'40) and during World War Two served with the Royal Artillery.
Not in the front line, however, but based in the English countryside. There he discovered nature, drew his fellow gunner-men and planted a garden. His eyes, he later declared, were opened to a new way of life, one where the quality of one's existence was of the utmost importance.
After the war he turned his back on painting to become a jazz musician, playing tenor saxophone with the popular Tommy Sampson Orchestra based in Edinburgh. He also plays piano, cello and bass clarinet
Again it was travel which opened his eyes to new possibilities. In 1948 he went to Venice with his wife ,Bili. There, seeing the Surrealist works of Max Ernst and Joan Miro and the early mythological paintings of the American artists Pollock, Rothko, Gorky and Matta, his mind was changed. These pictures, steeped in Jungian theory of the universal unconscious, and with mythological names and references, showed him new possibilities in painting. The style he subsequently developed owes much to his affinity with Zen. Having read Eugen Herrigel's 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 proceeded to paint, as the surrealists did, as automatically as possible so as, he explained, to bring forth elements of the unconscious. Despite the speed at which he works - he usually has several paintings on the go at once- he is adamant that his images are not pure abstraction. All, he declares, have significance as symbols. Over his 60 plus long career there has never been a clear distinction for him between drawing, painting and printmaking. All are done in an intuitive, improvised manner.
From his first exhibition at the Edinburg College of Art (1937), Alan has exhibited throughout the world, including New York (1956) and subsequently throughout the United States, at the Whitechapel, London (1958), Brazil and Holland (1962), Australia (1992) and the Scottish Museum of Modern Art (2000)
His role, he declares, is 'fundamentally the same as artists of remote times…engaged in a shamanistic conjuring up of visions which link us metaphorically with mysterious and spiritual forces normally beyond our apprehension…Art is an intimate meditation process involving some kind of communion with the gods. It's got nothing to do with communing with the public, as if it was some kind of show business. Art can exist without the public . I'm not interested in what anybody else thinks. I'm in it entirely for myself and if someone else is on the same wavelength all well and good. Art should give people a kind of uplift, an understanding of the mystery of life itself. It should take people out of their mere selves into another realm. What one should get from art is a kind of inspiration and revelation. You should be taken out of yourself and lifted off the ground'.
Born in Grangemouth, Sterlingshire on September 28th 1920, the son of a painter and printmaker. Alan studied at Edinburgh College of Art (1937-'40) and during World War Two served with the Royal Artillery.
Not in the front line, however, but based in the English countryside. There he discovered nature, drew his fellow gunner-men and planted a garden. His eyes, he later declared, were opened to a new way of life, one where the quality of one's existence was of the utmost importance.
After the war he turned his back on painting to become a jazz musician, playing tenor saxophone with the popular Tommy Sampson Orchestra based in Edinburgh. He also plays piano, cello and bass clarinet
Again it was travel which opened his eyes to new possibilities. In 1948 he went to Venice with his wife ,Bili. There, seeing the Surrealist works of Max Ernst and Joan Miro and the early mythological paintings of the American artists Pollock, Rothko, Gorky and Matta, his mind was changed. These pictures, steeped in Jungian theory of the universal unconscious, and with mythological names and references, showed him new possibilities in painting. The style he subsequently developed owes much to his affinity with Zen. Having read Eugen Herrigel's 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 proceeded to paint, as the surrealists did, as automatically as possible so as, he explained, to bring forth elements of the unconscious. Despite the speed at which he works - he usually has several paintings on the go at once- he is adamant that his images are not pure abstraction. All, he declares, have significance as symbols. Over his 60 plus long career there has never been a clear distinction for him between drawing, painting and printmaking. All are done in an intuitive, improvised manner.
From his first exhibition at the Edinburg College of Art (1937), Alan has exhibited throughout the world, including New York (1956) and subsequently throughout the United States, at the Whitechapel, London (1958), Brazil and Holland (1962), Australia (1992) and the Scottish Museum of Modern Art (2000)
His role, he declares, is 'fundamentally the same as artists of remote times…engaged in a shamanistic conjuring up of visions which link us metaphorically with mysterious and spiritual forces normally beyond our apprehension…Art is an intimate meditation process involving some kind of communion with the gods. It's got nothing to do with communing with the public, as if it was some kind of show business. Art can exist without the public . I'm not interested in what anybody else thinks. I'm in it entirely for myself and if someone else is on the same wavelength all well and good. Art should give people a kind of uplift, an understanding of the mystery of life itself. It should take people out of their mere selves into another realm. What one should get from art is a kind of inspiration and revelation. You should be taken out of yourself and lifted off the ground'.