Opus O.2178 Camin's Concept, 2010

Alan Davie RA (1920 - 2014)

RA Collection: Art

This painting characterises Alan Davie’s unique style: a fusion of artistic, spiritual and philosophical influences. The painting incorporates patterns inspired by varied sources such as Navajo Indian, aboriginal Australian, Caribbean and ancient Egyptian art, with runic markings that stem from Celtic designs. As with much of Davie’s work, this painting features shapes that intermingle and fight for space on the canvas. Davie was an artist who defied categorisation and developed a highly recognisable style that is simultaneously surrealist and symbolic, abstract and primitive.

The title of the work, Opus O.2178 Camin’s Concept, refers to the work of the entomologist Joseph H. Camin (1922–1979). Camin created a fictional set of animal-like life forms called ‘caminacules’ that provided a tool for better understanding taxonomic categorisation and the genetics within related groups of organisms. Camin made illustrations of the caminacules that demonstrated the variation in their features. Each caminacule appeared as a small, insect-like or even primordial sea-creature.

Davie’s painting may allude to physical qualities of the caminacules, such as the large eye-like feature on the left and the antennae or tentacles drooping away at the bottom right corner. The text across the mustard yellow background is in Spanish and, although partially obstructed by the large central mass, refers to biological families and the graphic representation of imaginary creatures.