Oil on wooden panel

(48cm x 62cm (19in x 24.5in))

Note: Few British artists of the 20th century are quite as intriguing as Alan Davie. Low key and independent, Davie operated outwith the art world ?scene? until his death in 2014 which means that, despite his popularity amongst critics and collectors, he isn?t the household name he perhaps deserves to be. Hopefully this is set to alter; it is with happy serendipity that this sale coincides with a major exhibition of his work at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, celebrating the centenary of his birth. He met and was admired by the great collector Peggy Guggenheim in Venice in the late 1940s and was close to members of the American Abstract Expressionist movement including Jackson Pollock. Taking reference points from a vast area of art history - Celtic, Buddhist, African, Hindi and Modernist to name but a few - he created a language of emblems and symbols with the aim of capturing the 'mysterious and spiritual forces normally beyond our comprehension.' Davie?s esotericism and eccentricity earned him the reputation as something of a ?shaman?, a fitting title for an artist who sought to live his entire life as an exploration of the magic that underpins art, music and philosophy. The artist has had retrospectives at the Barbican, London, Tate St Ives and Tate Britain. He was appointed CBE in 1972 and elected a senior Royal Academician in 2012.