Albert Irvin

Albert Irvin
Born
Albert Henry Thomas Irvin

(1922-08-21)21 August 1922
Bermondsey, London, England
Died26 March 2015(2015-03-26) (aged 92)
Tooting, London, England
NationalityBritish
Known forPainting
MovementExpressionist abstract
AwardsOBE
Websitealbert-irvin.com

Albert Henry Thomas Irvin OBE RA (21 August 1922 – 26 March 2015) was an English expressionist abstract artist.

Life and career

Irvin was born in Bermondsey, London on 21 August 1922. He was evacuated from there during World War II, to study at the Northampton School of Art between 1940 and 1941, before being conscripted into the Royal Air Force as a navigator. When the war was over, he resumed his course at Goldsmiths College from 1946 to 1950.[1] He went on to teach there between 1962 and 1983, on good terms with Basil Beattie and Harry Thubron.[citation needed] He was elected to The London Group in 1955.[citation needed] He worked in studios in the East End of London from 1970 onwards.[citation needed]

In the early 1950s, Bert met and was hugely influenced by many of the "St Ives" artists including Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton, Terry Frost and Sandra Blow.[citation needed]

Irvin won a major Arts Council Award in 1975 and a Gulbenkian Award for printmaking in 1983. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1998.[2]

His work is widely exhibited both in the UK and abroad, in such places as Arts Council of Great Britain, Birmingham City Art Gallery, the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Contemporary Art Society, Manchester City Art Gallery, Whitworth Gallery Manchester, Leeds City Gallery Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum Oxford University, Cambridge University and Warwick University Arts Centre.[3]

His influences included Walter Sickert, Henri Matisse, J. M. W. Turner, Jack Smith and Edward Middleditch.[4]

Irvin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the visual arts.[5]

Irvin married Beatrice Olive Nicolson in August 1947.[6] Irvin died in Tooting, London on 26 March 2015, at the age of 92.[7] His wife survived him, and died in Tooting in September 2015, at the age of 93.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Albert Irvin: 'Colours of Feeling'". HENI Talks.
  2. ^ "Albert Irvin: Autographic Marks". Ackerman Studios.
  3. ^ Albert Irvin Hon RWA Archived 9 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Albert Irvin: Painting into Life Archived 29 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "No. 60534". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2013. p. 11.
  6. ^ Anna Dyke interview
  7. ^ "Albert Irvin obituary". The Guardian. 27 March 2015. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022.
  8. ^ Albert Irvin and Abstract Expressionism