Francis Davison 1919-1984

Executed circa 1952-63.
Davison began to make collages in 1952 whilst living and working in Syleham, Suffolk with his wife Margaret Mellis. Having been introduced by Patrick Heron, they married in 1948 and moved to Syleham in 1950 where he was particularly inspired by the rural patchwork landscape of fields and farms.  Throughout his life, Davison maintained a very private profile and preferred to remain almost anonymous when his work was exhibited. He had regular exhibitions at the Redfern Gallery where a retrospective of his collages was staged in 1986.  He also had solo exhibitions at the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield in 1981, at M.O.M.A., Oxford in 1982 and was honoured with a major exhibition of his collages organised by the Arts Council at the Hayward Gallery in 1983.