Biography

1920 Born in Grangemouth
1937-40 Studied at Edinburgh College of Art
1938 Awarded Andrew Grant Scholarship
1941 Awarded Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship
1941-46 Military Service with the Royal Artillery
1942 Guthrie Award for the best painting by a young artist at the Scottish Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Edinburgh
1947 Married Janet Gaul; touring as a professional jazz musician
1948 Travelling around Europe; met Peggy Guggenheim, who bought one of his works
1949 Moved to London; birth of daughter, Jane
1950 Showed at Gimpel Fils; met Herbert Read and Roland Penrose
1953-1956; 1959 Taught at Central School of Arts and Crafts
1956 Moved to New York; met leading Abstract Expressionists; took up a Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University
1958 Showed at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (touring from Wakefield City Art Gallery)
1966 Paintings appeared in 'Blow-Up'; First Prize at the International Graphics Exhibition, Cracow, Poland
1971 First record published by Alan Davie Music Workshop
1972 Awarded CBE
1974-91 Wintered annually in St. Lucia, painting gouaches
1975 Music concert in Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris
1977 Saltire Award for mosaic in Grangemouth; Lecturer at the Royal College of Art
1982 Taught at summer school at Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver
1987 Received Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil
1991 Elected member of the Royal West of England Academy; became Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art
1993 Visiting Professor at University of Brighton School of Art
1994 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, Faculty of Art and Design, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
1995 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, Hertfordshire, Hatfield
2000 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art retrospective
2002 Visiting Professor at University of Brighton School of Art
2003 Exhibition at Tate (also 2014)
2012 Became a Senior Royal Academician
2014 Died

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1946 Grant’s Bookshop, Edinburgh
1948 Galleria Michelangelo, Florence, Italy (and Galleria Sandri, Venice)
1950 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
1956 Catherine Viviano Galllery, New York 'Alan Davie'
Gimpel Fils, London 'Alan Davie'
1957 Catherine Viviano Galllery, New York 'Alan Davie'
1958 Wakefield City Art Gallery, Liverpool 'Alan Davie - Retrospective' (touring)
1961 Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles
1962-63 FBA Galleries, London and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 'Alan Davie: Retrospective' (touring)
1963 Galleria La Medusa, Rome
British Section, 7th Bienal de Bellas Artes de São Paolo, Brazil (Prize, Best Foreign Painter)
1968 The Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh 'Alan Davie - Retrospective of 52 Paintings'
1970-71 University Art Museum of Texas, Austin (retrospective)
1971 2nd Triennale of World Art, Dehli
1972 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 'Alan Davie - Retrospective 1952-1972' (touring)
1976 Galleria La Medusa, Rome
1977 Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens
1982 Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong (retrospective)
FIAC, Paris
1986 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
1987 Gimpel Fils, London 'Alan Davie: Major Works of the Fifties'
FIAC, Paris
1988 South West Galleries Association (touring)
1990 Galerie Bork, Copenhagen
Galleri G, Helsingborg
1992 McLellan Galleries, Glasgow 'Solo: The Alan Davie Retrospective' (touring)
1992-1995 The Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh 'The British Council exhibition of works on paper' (touring)
1993 Barbican Art Gallery, London (retrospective)
1996 Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
1997 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (touring)
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
2000-01 University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton (touring - inc. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art)
2001 Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amstelveen 'Alan Davie: Schilderijen Paintings 1950-2000'
2002 Howard Gardens Gallery, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
2003 James Hayman Fine Art, London
Tate St Ives, Cornwall 'Alan Davie: Jingling Space'
2004 ACA Galleries, New York 'Alan Davie: The Alchemical Journey'
James Hyman Fine Art, London 'The Challenge of Post-War Painting'
2005 Galleria Morone, Milan
2006 108 Fine Art, Harrogate
2007 Thomas Dane Gallery, London 'Alan Davie. Paintings 1955-1967'
ACA Galleries, New York
2008 Gimpel Fils, London and James Hyman Gallery, London (touring)
2010 Gimpel Fils, London (Alan Davie's 90th birthday celebration)
2014 Tate, London 'BP Spotlight: Alan Davie'

Publications

'Alan Davie - Retrospective', London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1958 (ex. cat.)
'Alan Davie', Los Angeles: Esther Robles Gallery, 1961 (ex. cat.)
Bowness, A. (ed.), 'Alan Davie', London: Lund Humphries, 1967
'Alan Davie: Retrospective', London: FBA Galleries & Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1967 (ex. cat.)
'Alan Davie - Retrospective of 52 Paintings', Edinburgh: The Richard Demarco Gallery, 1968 (ex. cat.)
'Alan Davie - Retrospective 1952-1972', Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Academy, 1972 (ex. cat.)
'Alan Davie: Major Works of the Fifties', London: Gimpel Fils, 1987 (ex. cat.)
'Alan Davies. Major Works of the Sixties', Gimpel Fils, London, 1989 (ex. cat.)
'Solo: The Alan Davie Retrospective', Glasgow: Glasgow Museums, 1992 (ex. cat.)
Hall, D. and M.Tucker, 'Alan Davie', London: Lund Humphries, 1992
'Alan Davie: Schilderijen Paintings 1950-2000', Amstelveen: Cobra Museum of Modern Art (ex. cat.)
'The Challenge of Post-War Painting', London: James Hyman Fine Art, 2004 (ex. cat.)
'Alan Davie. Paintings 1955-1967', London: Thomas Dane Gallery, 2007
Hall, D., 'Alan Davie: To Uncover the Hidden Unknown', London: Alan Wheatley Art, 2011

Collections

Arts Council of Great Britain, London
British Council, London
Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Contemporary Arts Society, London
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, St Paul-de-Vence
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Kunsthaus, Berne
Museum des 20.Jahrhunderts, Vienna
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum, New York
National Gallery, Oslo
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
Scottish Art Council, Edinburgh
Stäatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Tate, London
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
Trinity College, Dublin
University of Brighton
University of Cambridge
V&A Museum, London
Wakefield Art Gallery

Alan Davie RA

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