Douglas Litterick Swan
BIOGRAPHY
Douglas Swan (1930-2000)
Douglas Litterick Swan was born in Connecticut, USA in 1930 of Scottish parents and moved to Carnoustie on the east coast of Scotland with his family in 1936 at the age of six. After completing his National Service he studied at the Dundee College of Art from 1943-1953 where his teachers included the Landscape painter James MacKintosh Patrick and Hugh Adam Crawford. Swan then took a brief residency at Patrick Allan Fraser's Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, were he studied under Ian Fleming and received a Post Graduate Diploma. He also studied at Trinity College of Music in London.
Swan began exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy, and was awarded the RSA Scholarship in London in 1954; It was here that he met and formed a lasting friendship with the artist William Scott (1913-1989). They painted together in Somerset and then in Cornwall. In 1958 he was awarded a British Council Scholarship for study in Italy. While on scholarship in Milan, Swan enjoyed the vibrant contemporary art scene of the time provided by Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani and Roberto Crippa.
During the late 1960s Swan moved to Switzerland with his wife Barbara (nee Kückels) and became an important and established 20th Century Abstract painter. In the mid 1970s, they moved to Bonn, living at first in Mozart, and then in Göbenstrasse. Throughout his life, Swan would often return to his parental home of Carnoustie where he continued to paint and draw inspiration.
In 1986 he was awarded the Kunststipendium des Stadt, a major award given annually by the City of Bonn.
During his career, Swan showed at the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh), Young Contemporaries, London Group, Gimpel Fils, AIA (Artists International Association), and had a series of one-man shows in Italy, Germany and Switzerland. His time spent in Carnoustie, Arbroath, resulted in a series of solo exhibitions in the UK most significantly with the Stone Gallery in 1964. His works are held in public and private galleries/collections in the UK, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland and The Netherlands.
Douglas Swan died in Germany on 7th June 2000, a result of a traffic accident.
Selected one-man exhibitions
1957 – St. Hilda's College, Oxford, UK
1958 - Galerie Pater, Milan, Italy
1959 - ‘Douglas Swan' (24.10 – 21.11.59) Stone Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
1960 - ‘Douglas Swan' (29.03 – 23.04.61) Galerie Bernard, Grenchen, Switzerland
1960 – Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford, UK
1960/61/62/63/65 - ‘An exhibition of the painter Douglas Swan' Galleria Il Milione, Milan, Italy
1962 - Galerie san Rocco, Seregno, Italy
1963 - Galerie La Bussola, Turin, Italy
1964 - ‘Douglas Swan' (17.01 – 15.10.64) Stone Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
1965 - Galerie Penelope, Rome, Italy
1966 - Galerie Zinnober, Solothurn, Switzerland
1967 - ‘Douglas Swan – Object Painting' (24.06-23.07.67), Städtische Kunstgalerie, Bochum, Germany
1968 – Galerie, Neupforte, Aachen, Germany
1968 – Studentengalerie, Aachen, Germany
1972/73 - Galerie Nebeluna, Dusseldorf, Germany
1972 - ‘Douglas Swan, New Pictures' (28.04 – 31.03.72) Galerie Reckermann, Koln, Germany
1972/74/77 - Galerie Kückels, Bochum, Germany
1973/74 - New Smith Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
1973 - Galerie Marzona, Bielefeld, Germany
1974 - Galerie Nothelfer, Berlin, Germany
1975 - Galerie Löwenadler, Stockholm, Sweden
1976 - Galerie Jurka, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1976 - Aktionsgalerie, Berne, Switzerland
1976 - Galerie d'art, Club 44, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
1976 - Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
1977/79/90/93 - Galerie Schlegl, Zurich, Switzerland
1977 - ‘Air Aspects – Pictures, Watercolours and Drawings' Galerie Linssen, Bonn, Germany
1977 - ‘Douglas Swan – Paintings and Drawings' (02.11 – 04.12.77) Kunstverein Bonn, Germany
1978 - Galerie Jöllenbeck, Köln, Cologne, Germany
1978 – ‘Air' (01.10 – 19.11.78) Suermondt Ludwig Museum, Aachen, Germany
1978 – ‘Air' (02.12.78 – 07.01.79) Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht, The Netherlands
1979 – ‘Air' (28.01 – 04.03.79) Kunstverein Pforzheim, Germany
1979 – ‘Air' (23.03 – 06.05.79) Museum Bochum, Germany
1979 – ‘Air' (09.05 – 08.06.79) Galerie Linssen, Bonn, Germany
1979 - ‘Douglas Swan - Works on Canvas & Paper' (02.11.79 – 09.12.79) Kunstverein Braunschweig, Lessingplatz, Germany
1981 – Kunstverein, Neunkirchen, Germany
1982 - Galerie Fröhlich, Linz, Austria
1982/83 - Galerie Hella Nebelung, Dusseldorf, Germany
1983 – Saarland Musuem, Saarbrücken Germany
1984 - Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
1984/85/86/87/88/89/05 Galerie Hennemann, Bonn, Germany
1985 - Galerie Pro Arte, Frieburg, Germany
1986 – ‘Painting into Air – Douglas Swan' Touring exhibition organised by Artsite Gallery, Bath. Exhibition toured to Glynn Vivian Gallery (Swansea), Quinton Green Fine Arts (London), Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (Sunderland), Spacex Gallery (Exeter),
Artspace (Aberdeen) and Oriel Gallery (Cardiff)
1986/95 Galerie Kö 24, Hannover, Germany
1989/91/94/99/02 – Galerie Pudelko, Bonn, Germany
1992 - Galerie Birgit Terbrüggen, Wehr, Baden, Germany
2008 - Galerie Hintemann, Bonn, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
1956 – ‘Alexander Weatherson, Morley Bury, Douglas Swan' Gallery One, 20 D'arblay Street, London, UK
1957 - Gimpel Fils, London, UK
1957/91 - Piccadilly Gallery, London, UK
1958 - Waddington Gallery, London, UK
1958 - AIA Gallery, London, UK
1958/74 - Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK
1960 - ‘Sato, Swan, Weichberger, Whiteley' (20.07 – 01.09.60) McRoberts & Tunnard, London, UK
1960 - ‘Fontana, Crippa, Samona, Swan, Peeters, Van Anderlecht' Galerie Bernard, Grenchen, Switzerland
1961/64/66/90 - Galerie Bernard, Solothurn, Switzerland
1964 - University of Glasgow, UK
1971/72/73/74/77 - International Kunstmarkt Köln, (Galerie Müller, Köln, Germany)
1971/81/84/88 - Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
1971/73 - Galerie Jöllenbeck, Köln, Cologne Germany
1973 – Pro Art, Duisburg, Germany
1972 - Foire d'art, Bruges, Belgium
1973/74/75/76 – IKI Düsseldorf (Gallery 44, Düsseldorf, Germany)
1974 - Foire d'art, Knocke, Belgium
1976 - Foire d'art, Brussels, Belgium
1976/77 - Kunstmesse Bologna, Bologna, Italy
1976/87/88/91 - Galerie Schlégl, Zürich, Switzerland
1977/78 - Kunstmesse Basel, Basel (Galerie Linssen, Bonn, Germany)
1978 - International Kunstmarkt Dusseldorf (Galerie Linssen, Bonn, Germany)
1983 - Grafik Kabinett, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
1983/84/85/86/87/88/89 - Galerie Hennemann, Bonn, Germany
1985 - The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
1986/88/89/90/91/92 - Galerie Pro Arte, Freiburg, Germany
1987 - Kunsthalle am Hochstadenring, Bonn, Germany
1987 - Galerie Kö 24, Hannover, Germany
1990/92 - Galerie Pudelko, Bonn, Germany
1993 - Galerie Moderne, Bad Zwischenahn, Germany
1994 – Art Basel (Galerie Pudelko, Bonn, Germany)
