Clarendon is pleased to present a collection of artworks by Joan Miró and Alan Davie, two of the leading abstract artists of the Twentieth Century.

In this collection, the avant-garde expression of Joan Miró and Alan Davie intertwine to immerse viewers in a vibrant symphony of colour, shape, and form. Although working in distinct moments in time and spheres of influence, Miró and Davie both used a complex vocabulary of symbols and signs and challenged traditional notions of representation through the liberating power of abstraction.

Alan Davie

Zurich Improvisation II, 1965

The influences behind Davie’s work come to the fore in this lithograph, the second of thirty-four works he executed for his Zurich Improvisations suite in 1965. The floating objects and blocks of colour prevalent throughout the thirty-four lithographs are exemplary of his very individual style, pregnant with mysticism and spirituality.

Alan Davie (1920-2014)
Davie's work is characterised by vivid colour and semi-abstract forms, inspired in particular by Zen spirituality and the analytical psychology of Carl Jung. He asserted that his paintings were significant as symbols, comparing the role of the artist to that of the shaman. Art collections and museums that hold the work of Alan Davie include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Tate Collection, UK

The Vital Spark, 1920-2014

Painted when the artist was in his late 80s, The Vital Spark suggests the spiritual journey of a man, looking forwards from birth. The biomorphic shapes suggest sexual organs, snakes, flowers and synapses, an interwoven continuity between the individual and the natural world.

Flowers for the Cool Air

Flowers for the Cool Air was painted in 1958, the same year as Davie’s seminal Whitechapel exhibition which brought him broad international acclaim. This year was also a pivotal moment in regard to his output, which diminished in volume significantly from 1958 onwards. This painting is indicative of the transition that Davies underwent in the early 1960s – from loose, rapid brush strokes to a more controlled style, where he utilised sharper and more defined abstract forms

Joan Miró

Personatge I Estels I, Joan Miró

This piece is an archetype of Miró’s late etchings, with their characteristic combination of bold black lines and playful primary and secondary colours. The abstract nature of these forms means that they move to fit what we choose to see in them - Miró invites us to participate in meaning-making, rather than telling us outright how to feel or what to think about the piece.

Joan Miró (1893-1983)
Discover the immersive world of pioneering Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró. Miró's distinctive style is founded upon the practice of automatism – a method of 'random' drawing that attempted to express the subconscious workings of the human psyche. Certain motifs recur, such as birds, stars, eyes, the moon and the sun, and colours and forms are loaded with symbolic meanings, rather than interpreted literally. There is a museum dedicated to the artist in Barcelona, The Fundació Joan Miró, and his work is perennially the subject of major exhibitions.

Archipel Sauvage V, 1970

This etching’s title means ‘Wild Archipelago’ in English, but the sea that surrounds this cluster of islands seems almost moss-like with its deep green tinge, the islands becoming steppingstones in an overgrown garden. The result is a nebulous composition, hazy and dreamlike.

One Plate from Le Lézard aux Plumes d'Or, 1971

The present work is from a suite of lithographs Miró titled Le Lézard aux Plumes d'or (The Lizard with Golden Feathers), produced to illustrate the poem of the same name which the artist himself penned in the late 1960s. In this work, Miro expresses himself through his personal vocabulary of signs, and alludes to a world of his own making that he transmits to the spectator by means of evocative forms, that like his poetry, suggest rather than indicate an infinite range of experience.

Contact your gallery to discuss available originals, lithographs and etchings.