Douglas Swan Biography
Douglas Swan (1930 - 2000) was born in New Britain, Connecticut, to Scottish parents. Swan studied at Dundee College of Art (1943-53), where his teachers were the landscape painter James MacIntosh Patrick and Hugh Adam Crawford. Swan took up a brief residency at Patrick Allan Fraser's Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, where he studied with Ian Fleming and received a postgraduate diploma; he also studied at Trinity College of Music in London. Swan began exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy and, in 1954, was awarded a scholarship to study in London. It was there that he met the artist William Scott, with whom he formed a lasting bond. In 1957/8, Swan was awarded a British Council scholarship to study in Italy, where, in Milan, he enjoyed the city's vibrant contemporary art scene provided by figures such as Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani and Roberto Crippa. In the late 1960s Swan moved to Switzerland with his wife Barbara, nee Kückels, and established himself as an important abstract painter. After their first exhibition in Germany, in Bochum, the couple decided to move to the countryside, settling in Bonn, first in Mozart, then in Göbenstrasse. Douglas Swan died in 2000 following a car accident. Throughout his career, Swan has exhibited with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Contemporary Youth, Whitechapel Art Gallery; London group; International Association of Artists; Stone Gallery (known for its connection with LS Lowry); Waddington Gallery; Gimpel Fils Gallery; and has held a series of solo exhibitions in Italy, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. His works are held in public collections in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
