Alan Davie was a Scottish mid-century painter, yet his identity cannot be pigeonholed. According to the artist himself, Davie was a painter, jazz musician, poet and jewellery maker; yet for his many devotees, he was also a shaman or even a ‘magician’. In any case, Davies is unquestionably one of Britain’s most globally acclaimed artists.
Davies’ quasi-mystical status derives in large part from his choice of source material, which defied boundaries of geography, theology and time. Drawing on a rich, international legacy of signs, symbols and words, Davies synthesised elements of cartography, Aboriginal art, ancient rock-carvings, and American Indian pottery into a revived mythology for a modern, secular post-war society.
Paired with his keen interest in Zen Buddhism and Jungian psychoanalysis, which identifies a ‘collective unconscious’, Davies incorporated his archetypal symbols into a semi-abstract, universal visual language. His compositions therefore invoke culturally complex, multi-layered meanings.
Equally, his works appear to be grounded in spontaneity – Davies was a jazz saxophonist, after all. His characteristic, vibrant palette evokes a child-like sense of joyfulness which, combined with his playful, semi-abstract forms, celebrates the musical, expressive potential of artistic creativity.
In abandoning traditional methods of composition and subject matter, Davies enacted a blatant departure from High Renaissance and Enlightenment values. His work was not a total artistic departure, however; Davies was arguably the first European artist to realise the vitality of American Abstract Expressionism. Following a visit to Peggy Guggenheim’s collection in 1948, he was clearly inspired by the improvisatory quality to Jackson Pollock’s work. In fact, Davies considered premeditation to be an impediment to artistic creativity, seeking to dispel it from his works altogether.
For this reason, it is a fitting paradox that Davies chose to work in oil paint, a medium which requires meticulous and time-consuming application; as in all aspects of his painting, Davies defied artistic expectation.