Foreword

McTears are delighted to offer a group of five paintings by the highly acclaimed Scottish artist ALAN DAVIE (1920-2014) Was a Scottish painter.

Strongly inspired by Zen philosophies, his paintings consist of responsive and spontaneous primitive compositions painted with obsessive, conglomerate mark-making to form images that slip in between abstraction and representation. Davie’s roster of references and influences is extensive, and includes Jungian psychoanalysis, Pictish symbol stones, contemporary abstract painters, and his lifelong passion and aptitude for playing music. Born on September 28, 1920 in Grangemouth, Scotland, he was educated at the Edinburgh College of Art, and exhibited his work in a regional setting until his death in Hertfordshire, England on April 5, 2014 at the age of 93. His work can now be found in museum collections worldwide, notably including the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others. Davie is quoted;

“There occurs a DIALOGUE between my paintings and the tribal sculptures which stand in our home alongside the pictures – they live very happily together. I feel they both embody a spiritual essence which is timeless and beyond cultures and history. .. I feel strongly that I am, as it were, TAPPING IN to the vast store of imagery which makes our artistic heritage from CAVE ART onwards- and of course- being of CELTIC origins one can discern a link with ancient NORDIC culture.” Alan Davie

“The marriage of poetic and pictorial became the outcome in the later painted works. After all, the words we use in our own written language are all originally evolved from pictographs- changed and refined over many hundreds of years. ..Words from a foreign script are often used – particularly from a language which is unknown to me…which seems to me to have a particularly evocative FEEL and musicality… A Creative experience can have infinite possibilities, which makes a work of ART a kind of everlasting GENERATOR of emotions.” Alan Davie

“The spectator can 'ENTER' the work from an 'irrational' view-point as it were. One becomes 'LOST' in the image and is compelled to recreate 'meanings' for one's self and thus enter a world of painting of one's own making”. Alan Davie

For a complimentary, no-obligation valuation, visit our Glasgow Galleries or contact a specialist on 0141 810 2880 or auction@mctears.co.uk.