WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Alan Davie

Alan Davie

1920–2014

Grangemouth, UK

PaintingAbstract ExpressionismExpressionismColor Field

Representation

None documented

Institutional Exhibitions

Works in Collection

Assets Indexed

Authority-backed Facts

Publications Referenced

90%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Movements

• Abstract Expressionism
• Expressionism
• Color Field

Related Artists

No edges recorded

Influence Graph

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Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

Recent European Acquisitions

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1956–1957

About

Why this artist matters now

Alan Davie was a British painter who developed an abstract vocabulary combining gestural mark-making with symbolic and mythological imagery. Working primarily in oil and acrylic from the 1940s onward, his compositions layer calligraphic forms, biomorphic shapes, and vivid color fields into densely populated surfaces that suggest both cosmic and intimate scales. His work emerged alongside and in dialogue with European modernism and American Abstract Expressionism, though his symbolic vocabulary remained distinctly his own.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 25d ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Abstract Expressionism

Medium

Painting

Related Artists

12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern ArtNew York Art Institute of Chicago Tate

Canonical record

Artworks (35)

WattsOS

Impromptus

2001 · Portfolio of 16 etchings, title page, box

Sheet: 28 3/8 × 33 7/8 in. (72 × 86 cm) Plate: 22 × 27 7/8 in. (55.9 × 70.8 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Village Myths No. 36

1983 · Oil paint on canvas

support: 2135 x 1730 mm

Tate

Magic Picture No. 1

1977 · Lithograph on paper

image: 546 x 743 mm

Tate

Bird Through Wall

1973 · Lithograph on paper

image: 502 x 708 mm

Tate

Italian Image

1973 · Lithograph on paper

image: 333 x 613 mm

Tate

Bird Through Wall from Penwith Portfolio

1973 · Lithograph

Sheet 22 1/8 x 30 7/16" (56.2 x 77.3 cm) Comp. 19 3/4 x 27 13/16" (50.2 x 70.6 cm) (irreg.)

Museum of Modern Art

Untitled from Homage to Picasso (Hommage à Picasso)

1972 · Lithograph from a portfolio of thirty-one lithographs (one with aquatint, one with collotype, one with screenprint), twenty-two screenprints (one with embossing, one with flocking, one with stencil), eleven etchings (five with aquatint, one with aquatint and drypoint, one with aquatint, drypoint, and engraving), three aquatints (one with etching), and two woodcuts

composition (irreg.): 18 1/8 x 24 1/2" (46 x 62.2cm); sheet: 19 11/16 x 25 7/8" (50 x 65.8cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Fairy Tree No. 5

1971 · Oil paint on canvas

support: 1727 x 2134 mm

Tate

View all 35 artworks →

Record

Images

Artsy

Art Institute of Chicago

Related artists

Adjacent in the graph

Record

Movements and affiliations

Abstract Expressionism

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Tate

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Market

Auction sale history

Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction

Market

Auction History

Work	Auction House	Date	Estimate	Hammer Price
Untitled	Artsy	Feb 2025	£300 – £500	Unsold

Record

Exhibitions and timeline

Group Exhibition Recent European Acquisitions

New York · 1956