In 1987 the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle invited Davie to paint a mural at her Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy. He was asked to paint the interior of the head of 'Il Mago' (The Magician), one of the sculptures based on tarot cards. This painting is the first in a series based on this work, and closely follows the original mural. The broad vertical form on the right of the painting is the mirror pattern of the mural.
Alan Davie (Scottish, born 1920)
Davie was born in Grangemouth, near Edinburgh and studied at Edinburgh College of Art. In 1948 he saw the work of the American Abstract Expressionists and was impressed by their intensity and freedom. Davie abandoned traditional methods of composition and subject matter and sought to free his art from premeditated decision-making. This approach owes much to the artist's interest in Zen Buddhism and there is also an analogy with jazz - Davie was a jazz saxophonist early on in his career. In the later 1950s and 1960s Davie's brushwork became more controlled and the imagery more legible. Mysterious symbols began to appear, found in sources as varied as American Indian pottery, maps, ancient rock-carvings and Aboriginal art.
![Il Mago Study No. 1 [Opus O.1116]](http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/42/collection/GMA 4122.jpg)
