Alan Davie (1920–2014) is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s greatest painters. Renowned art critic David Sylvester once referred to Francis Bacon and Alan Davie as “the two most important Post-war British painters.”

 By the early 1960s, Davie’s work increasingly drew on myth and “magic symbolism.” He often described himself less as an artist than as a medium or shaman. A talented jazz musician, he incorporated signs and symbols from cultures as diverse as the Navajo, the Caribbean islands, Aboriginal Australians, and the ancient Egyptians, Celts, and Picts, always emphasizing the “mythic and the poetic.” Davie once stated:

“Symbolism, is quite an apparent theme in a lot of my work. I use it to kind of suggest narratives that I have in my head.”

A vigorous experimenter, Davie was indifferent to prevailing art movements and the opinions of others, following his own path with relentless originality. Stuart Preston, New York Times critic, wrote in 1957:

“His repertoire of shapes is lavish—curlicues, boomerangs, arrowheads, big implacable rectangles and nests of rat’s cradles.”

Although Davie experienced a rapid decline into relative obscurity, his work is now being appreciated anew. Recent exhibitions at Tate Britain (2014) and Gimpel Gallery have highlighted his unique contributions to European art. His exploration of myth, symbolism, and personal vision positions him as one of Europe’s most significant and potentially influential artists of the twentieth century, with a legacy that continues to reveal new depth and inspiration as his body of work is more fully examined.