Alan Davie was one of the great figures of 20th century British art: a visionary Scottish painter, whose intensely physical gestural canvases stood the staid post-war art world on its head, but who lapsed into relative obscurity later in his career. This ground-breaking publication provides a new view of Davie (1920-2014), arguing that far from being an essentially historical figure, defined by the abstract expressionist era of the Fifties and early Sixties when he enjoyed his greatest fame, Davie was a prophetic artist whose preoccupations with universal creativity and self-realisation are more relevant today than they’ve ever been. 

Lavishly illustrated with rare archive photographs and little-seen paintings, Alan Davie in Hertford demonstrates that Davie’s richly symbolic art was far more informed by actual physical places than is generally supposed, not least the quiet market town of Hertford, where he lived for 60 years. Ahead of the creation of a new Davie gallery in Hertford, the book provides a catalogue of 40 works intended as the new gallery’s core collection, providing a “rich and fabulous” survey of Davie’s achievements, from student works of the Thirties to some of his very last paintings.

If you wish to purchase a copy, you can do here: https://www.hertfordartshub.org/news/alan-davie-in-hertford