'Susan's delight' - A serigraph by Alan Davie

'Susan's delight' - A serigraph by Alan Davie

'Susan's Delight'

By Alan Davie

Medium - Woodcut

Edition - 6/200

Published by The Tate, St Ives

Signed - Yes

Size - 505mm x 570mm

Date - 2003

Condition - excellent. 10 out of 10.

Painter, born at Grangemouth, Stirlingshire. His father was also an artist, and Davie junior was encouraged to enroll at the Edinburgh College of Art, 1937-40, where he was taught by John Maxwell. After army service with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War, Davie worked variously as a jazz musician, textile designer, potter and as a jewelery designer. In 1946 he held his first solo exhibition at Grant's Bookshop, Edinburgh and shortly afterwards traveled around Europe and met Peggy Guggenheim, which was to broaden his artistic horizons. His work over the years was heavily influenced by abstract expressionism, oriental mysticism and Indian mythology. His first London exhibition was at Gimpel Fils, London in 1950 and his first New York exhibition at the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York in 1956. During the 1960s and later, many of Davie's drawings appeared in printed form by Curwen Press and was also featured in the eclectic magazine Motif.

Davie was awarded the Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University 1957-59 and in 1962 he held a retrospective exhibition in Amsterdam at the Stedelijk Museum. Other retrospective exhibition venues include McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, 1992, RWA Bristol, 1992, Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1993 and 'Jingling Space' held at Tate St. Ives. This highlighted Davie's works from the 1930s to the millennium.

Examples of his work are in the collections of the City Arts Centre, Fleming Collection, Harrogate Art Gallery, Jerwood Foundation, Lillie Art Gallery, MoMa, New York, Museums Sheffield, NCAS, Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, Tate Gallery, Towner Art Gallery, Ulster Museum, University of Warwick Art Collection, V&A, Worcester Art Gallery and major museums around the world including MoMA, New York. Alan Davies was made a CBE in 1972, a Senior Fellow of the RA in 2012, and a major exhibition of his work opened at Tate Britain a few days after his death.