Opening Reception Thursday 5 June, 6 – 8:00pm

An exhibition of paintings by renowned Scottish artist Alan Davie (1920-2014). Davie was a giant of 20th-century art, winning global acclaim from both critics and fellow artists among them Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and David Hockney. Sadly this truly unique voice in painting passed away in early April of this year but his place in history as one of Europe’s most important and influential artists is assured.

Davie’s art making is often described in terms of the shamanistic and spiritual. Like the jazz music he was so fond of, improvisatory gestures, freedom and imagination fuse to form beauty. Ritual, religion and ancient culture all find their place in a magical world of form and colour. These are joyous, celebratory markers along the life journey of this remarkable man. As Helen Little’s essay Alan Davie: Entrance to a Paradise which accompanies the artist’s current display at Tate Britain states “Throughout his career, Davie believed that art should flow out of the totality of life. The content and appearance of his paintings may have changed over the years but, as the works on display at Tate Britain suggest, Davie’s practice was underpinned by his idea that ‘Painting is a continuous process which has no beginning or end. There never really is a point in time when painting is not.’”