ALAN DAVIE: An Inner Compulsion Following critically acclaimed major exhibitions: ‘To Uncover the Hidden Unknown’ (2012) and ‘The (Wild) Eye of Wonder’ (2014) Alan Wheatley Art is proud to announce a new Retrospective Exhibition by one of the most influential Modern British artists, Alan Davie,  held on the fourth anniversary of his passing.  

’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 in a conversation with Mark Hudson.   

Alan Davie (born in 1920, Grangemouth, Scotland – died 5 April 2014, Hertfordshire) is one of Britain's most internationally acclaimed artists of the post-war era. Distinguished by spontaneity, exuberant colour and improvisation, Davie's work has been shown frequently and with great success for over 70 years.   This new exciting Retrospective Exhibition at Alan Wheatley Art will span Alan Davie’s whole artistic career and provide the opportunity to view previously unseen significant early oil paintings as well as works painted by the artist shortly before he died.  

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Dr Michael Tucker (who collaborated on the Alan Davie monograph published by Lund Humphries in 1992.)  

Like his heroes, Paul Klee, Jackson Pollock and Joan Miró, Alan Davie drew inspiration for his paintings from music, jazz in particular, and was himself an accomplished player of several instruments. A multi-faceted creative spirit, Davie was also absorbed by a wide range of interests, such as the teachings of Zen philosophy and oriental mysticism, primitive art, modern music, underwater swimming and gliding.   Although Davie’s roots were in Scottish painting, and close to the warmth and vivacity of modern French art, Davie created his own unique artistic language, related to the diversity of his interests. His work contains strong symbolic elements associated with the very beginnings of art where shapes and signs carried great significance.   Davis’ first one-man show was held in 1946 at Grant's Bookshop in Edinburgh. At the recommendation of Peggy Guggenheim, which he had met in Venice in 1948, Alan Davie held his first one-man exhibition in London in 1950 at Gimpel Fils, where he was subsequently showing until his passing.    

His work can be found in the most eminent private and public collections around the world.  

In September 2017 Alan Wheatley Art was appointed sole representative of the Estate of Alan Davie.  

Please contact the gallery for further details or images.