Collection: Francis Davison   1919 - 1984 

Francis Davison was adopted and brought up in the south of France. Though he read English at Cambridge University and intended to become a poet, in 1946 Davison was invited to go to St. Ives by his former school friend the artist Patrick Heron. There he met Margaret Mellis, settling in Suffolk in 1950. By 1952 Davison had begun to work in collage, and would do so for the next 20 years.

Davison said that he was the only true collagist, relying entirely on found papers, more often torn than cut. Even half-paralysed, Mellis would hold papers while he tore them. Davison asked that no biographical information, dates or titles be displayed at his 1983 Hayward Gallery exhibition, insisting that viewers bring their own interpretations to the work. Davison died just a year later.