THE WEY GALLERY |  Albert Irvin RA

Born in 1922 in London, Albert studied at Northampton School of Art from 1940-41.  His studies were interrupted by the war and after serving as a navigator in the RAF he went on to study at Goldsmiths College, where he later returned to teach between 1962-1983.

As a student he painted in an impressionist style, but during the 1950’s he was influenced by Walter Sickert, JMW Turner, Jack Smith and Edward Middleditch.  The work of abstract Expressionists had an enormous influence on him.  Initially he retained his figurative content, but painted his first fully abstract canvas in 1959, increasing the scale and moving away from naturalistic colour.  He conceived the picture space metaphorically as a terrain with affinities to both London Street Maps and Landscapes.

His first solo exhibition was held in 1960 at 57 Gallery London He was awarded a Travel award to America by the Arts Council in 1968, followed by an Arts Council Major Award.  In 1983 Albert  won a Gulbenkian Award for Printmaking.

A major retrospective of his work was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1990 and he was elected a Royal Academician in 1998.

Paul Moorhouse, Tate Curator and author of the book ‘Irvin:Life to Painting’, wrote of him in 1998, “Even to those familiar to his work, seeing a new Painting by Irvin can be an extraordinary experience, akin to discovering a young energetic artist in the first flush of ambition.  Given the force of its restless energy. It’s freshness and the sense it communicates of an artist in love with his chosen activity.  It is even more surprising that it is the work of an artist in his late seventies”

Albert Lives and works in London

SELECTED PUBLIC AND CORPORATE  COLLECTIONS

Aberdeen Art Gallery; Anglo American plc, London; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Arthur Andersen, London; Arts Council of Great Britain; British Council; Chase Manhatten Bank; Chelsea and Westminster Hospital; Clipstream, London; Contemporary Art Society; Deutsche Bank, London and Frankfurt; Goverment Art Collection; Irish Museum of Modern Art; Mobil Oil; National Westminster Bank; Pensecola Museum, Florida; Schindler Collection, Zurich; Stuyvesant Collection,  Holland; Tate Gallery, London; Unilever; Victoria and Albert Museum; City Art Galleries in Birmingham, Blackburn, Huddersfield, Manchester, Stoke and Wolverhampton; University Art Galleries/Collections in Cambridge (Jesus College, Churchill College), Dublin (Trinity College), Lancaster, Liverpool, Northumbria, Oxford (St Johns College), Southampton, Warwick and Woolongong, Australia