Leo Davy
Leo Davy (1924 - 1979)
Leo Davy was born in 1924 in Shipley, Yorkshire, the seventh of nine surviving children to an art teacher and painter father and a mother who was the daughter of a painter. At the age of just ten he won a national drawing competition and in 1939 he studied at the Kingston School of Art, under Reginald Brill, before moving on the Slade School of Fine Art between 1942 and 1945, then evacuated to Oxford due to the Blitz, where he studied alongside such future stars as Kyffin Williams. Davy was included in a mixed summer show at the important contemporary gallery Gimpel-Fils in 1950 alongside avant-garde artists of the day, including Patrick Heron, William Gear, Alan Davie and William Scott.
Davy was strongly dedicated to the development of abstraction. It was through his panel paintings and works on paper that he reduced and refined scenes of everyday life into his own carefully considered abstract vision, applying thinck paint and washes to form blocks of colour, often quite angular. He settled in a dilapidated cottage in North Cornwall in 1968 with his wife, where he lived and worked until his sudden death in 1987. Davy was a self-imposed outsider, as David Duncan remembers: Davy was 'a man of very few words, in fact would only speak if spoken to'. Although Davy's main intent was to isolate himself and to follow an independent line of philosophical enquiry through his painting, his art was an essential means of communication to the rest of the world. As Davy proclaimed in 1946, at the age of 20, 'I only want to paint what only I can paint.'
For more information and availability of artworks please contact the gallery
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Aspects of Abstraction 1952-2007
Margaret Garlake, 2016Hardback, 80 pagesRead more
Publisher: Piano Nobile Publications
ISBN: 9781901192438
Dimensions: 28.8 x 24.6 x 1.3 cm -
Leo Davy
Early Works 1950-1963 2014Booklet, 8 pagesRead more
Publisher: Piano Nobile Publications
Dimensions: 15 x 20 cm -
20th Century Modern British Art
Developments in Modern British Art 2013Booklet, 8 pagesRead more
Publisher: Piano Nobile Publications
Dimensions: 15 x 20 cm -
Thomas Newbolt
Finding Faces in the Dark Martin Gayford, 2012Paperback, 28 pagesRead more
Publisher: Piano Nobile / Robert Travers (2012)
ISBN: 1901192326
Dimensions: 20.3 x 21 x 0.5 cm -
Leo Davy 1924 - 1987
A Passion to Paint Andrew Lambirth, 2010soft back, 58 pagesRead more
Publisher: Piano Nobile Publications
ISBN: 1 901192 31 8
Dimensions: 28 x 23 cm
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Leo Davy
Abstract Scenes: 1973-1987 6 Feb - 2 May 2017Born in 1924, Leo Davy (1924-1987) studied painting at Kingston School of Art under Reginald Brill and then at the Slade School of Fine Art whilst the school was evacuated...Read more -
London Art Fair 2017
Stand 7 17 - 22 Jan 2017 Art FairThe 29th edition of the fair featured over 130 participating galleries; Art Projects showcasing large scale installations, solo shows and curated group displays; Photo50, the guest curated annual showcase of...Read more -
Aspects of Abstraction
1952-2007 17 May - 23 Jun 2016 Piano NobilePiano Nobile presents a selection of Post-War abstract art for sale, Modern British art for sale, in Aspects of Post-War Abstraction exhibition.Read more -
London Art Fair
Stand 8 20 - 25 Jan 2015 Art FairPiano Nobile is exhibiting at the London Art Fair, Islington in January 2015.Read more -
20/21 British Art Fair
Royal College of Art 10 - 14 Sep 2014 Art FairThe 20/21 British Art Fair is the only fair to specialise in British art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Held at the Royal College of Art, 'the spiritual home...Read more -
The London Art Fair 2014
Stand 8 15 - 19 Jan 2014 Art FairLondon Art Fair is one of the UK's premier destinations for Modern British and contemporary art. The 26th edition takes place at the Business Design Centre, Islington, from 15 -...Read more -
20th Century British Art
Developments in Modern British Art 20 Jun - 20 Jul 2013 Piano Nobile20th Century: Modern British Art - Developments in Modern British ArtRead more
Piano Nobile Gallery
Summer show with selected works following the developments in 20th Century British Art