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One of Davie's seminal paintings of the mid 1960s.
As early as the 1940s Davie established a reputation not just as a painter but as a Jazz musician and throughout his career these two aspects have intermingled, most obviously in his use of improvisation. He conceived of the present work in a similar spirit to his free-form Jazz, as an improvisation around a theme.
In Improvisations on a Chagall Theme the jumping off point was a painting by Chagall showing a two-headed bride in a wedding dress and long white veil, holding a bunch of flowers.
In a television interview at the time this work was exhibited in his retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery, Davie spoke of this painting as possessing 'a musical, lyrical movement between certain very subtle colour relationships. I actually sprinkled paint on various areas, which has a scintillating, luminous quality.'
More recently, in an interview with Iain Gale, Davie talked about the symbols that became more apparent in this work from the mid-1960s: 'I realised you didn't have to have wild paint on a picture to make it a dynamic object. There is an incredible source of creative energy within oneself - an archetypal imagery within. Jung had the same idea: all sorts of symbols which one recognises without having to know what they mean. You find the same symbols in different cultures from all over the world from Australian Aborigines or Pictish tribes to Caribbean Indians' (Iain Gale, 'Tales of man, myth and magic', The Independent, 18 May 1993).
Alan Davie
Improvisations on a Chagall Theme No. 4
Oil on canvas
173 x 214 cms (68 x 84¼ inches)
1967
Signed and dated 'Alan Davie/FEB 1967' (on the reverse) and inscribed and dated again 'IMPROVISATION ON/A CHAGALL/THEME NO 4/FEB 1967' (on the reverse)
Provenance:
The artist (Opus no. 0579C)
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London.
Exhibited:
British Painting and Sculpture 1960-1970, Washington, Arts Council, National Gallery of Art, 1970
Alan Davie, Zurich, Gimpel-Hanover Gallery, 1971
Alan Davie: Paintings 1952-1972, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, RSA Galleries, 1972: this exhibition travelled to Braunschweig, Kunstverein, 1972
Alan Davie, Paris, Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, 1987
Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous, Brighton, University Gallery May 1993: this exhibition travelled to Hastings, Museum and Art Gallery; Ramsgate Gallery; Northumbria, University Gallery; Nottingham, University Gallery; Stirling, The Smith Art Gallery and Museum; and London, Barbican Art Gallery, 1993.
The Flower of Life, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2007
Literature:
British Paintings and Sculpture 1960-1970, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1970-1 (p. 89, illustrated, incorrectly titled Improvisations on a Chagall Theme No. 1).
Alan Davie, Zurich, Gimpel-Hanover Gallery, 1971
Alan Davie: Paintings 1952-1972, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, RSA Galleries, 1972
Alan Davie, Paris, Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, 1987 (pp. 20-21, illustrated)
D. Hall and M. Tucker, Alan Davie, London, 1992 (pp. 125, 178, no. 579C, pl. 72)
Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous, Brighton, University Gallery, 1993 (pp. 33, 88, no. 68, illustrated)
Improvisations on a Chagall Theme No. 4
Oil on canvas
173 x 214 cms (68 x 84¼ inches)
1967
Signed and dated 'Alan Davie/FEB 1967' (on the reverse) and inscribed and dated again 'IMPROVISATION ON/A CHAGALL/THEME NO 4/FEB 1967' (on the reverse)
Provenance:
The artist (Opus no. 0579C)
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London.
Exhibited:
British Painting and Sculpture 1960-1970, Washington, Arts Council, National Gallery of Art, 1970
Alan Davie, Zurich, Gimpel-Hanover Gallery, 1971
Alan Davie: Paintings 1952-1972, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, RSA Galleries, 1972: this exhibition travelled to Braunschweig, Kunstverein, 1972
Alan Davie, Paris, Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, 1987
Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous, Brighton, University Gallery May 1993: this exhibition travelled to Hastings, Museum and Art Gallery; Ramsgate Gallery; Northumbria, University Gallery; Nottingham, University Gallery; Stirling, The Smith Art Gallery and Museum; and London, Barbican Art Gallery, 1993.
The Flower of Life, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2007
Literature:
British Paintings and Sculpture 1960-1970, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1970-1 (p. 89, illustrated, incorrectly titled Improvisations on a Chagall Theme No. 1).
Alan Davie, Zurich, Gimpel-Hanover Gallery, 1971
Alan Davie: Paintings 1952-1972, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, RSA Galleries, 1972
Alan Davie, Paris, Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, 1987 (pp. 20-21, illustrated)
D. Hall and M. Tucker, Alan Davie, London, 1992 (pp. 125, 178, no. 579C, pl. 72)
Alan Davie: The Quest for the Miraculous, Brighton, University Gallery, 1993 (pp. 33, 88, no. 68, illustrated)