Davie, Alan

Davie, Alan (b Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, 28 Sept. 1920).
British painter, graphic artist, poet, musician, silversmith, and jeweller. After service in the army and a short period as a professional jazz musician (he plays several instruments), he travelled in Europe, 1948–9. This gave him the chance to see works by Jackson Pollock and other American painters in Peggy Guggenheim's gallery in Venice, and he was one of the first British artists to be affected by Abstract Expressionism. Other influences on his eclectic but extremely personal style are African sculpture and Zen Buddhism. His work is full of images suggestive of magic or mythology (some based on ancient forms, some of his own invention) and he uses these as themes around which—like a jazz musician—he spontaneously develops variations in exuberant colour and brushwork. From the 1960s he developed an international reputation.