Albert Irvin RA
Born: 21 August 1922, London, UK
Elected RA: 10 December 1998
Category of Membership: Painter
Albert Irvin RA, Tabard
Albert Irvin studied at Northampton School of Art from 1940 to 1941, before serving as a navigator in the RAF during World War II. He went on to study at Goldsmiths College where he later returned to teach between 1962 and 1983. He has also taught at art colleges throughout Britain.
Irvin’s first solo exhibition was held in 1960 at 57 Gallery, London. A major retrospective of his work from 1960 to 1989 was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1990. He continues to exhibit regularly at Gimpel Fils, London. Irvin was awarded a Travel Award to America by the Arts Council in 1968 and later received an Arts Council Major Award. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1998 and lives and works in London.
Paul Moorhouse, Tate curator and author of the book Albert Irvin: Life to Painting, wrote of him: 'even to those familiar with 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, its freshness and the sense it communicates of an artist in love with his chosen activity, it is even more surprising to realise that this is the work of an artist in his late seventies.'
Albert Irvin RA, Beckett
Irvin’s work has developed from a time when he considered that in order to give the necessary gravitas to a painting it had to be dark and sombre, through to a growing realisation that high key colour can be crucial in the achievement of full expressive and communicative force.
Recent solo exhibitions
2009 Churchill College, Cambridge
2009 Galerie Gimpel & Müller, Paris
2009 University Gallery, Northumbria University
2008 Manton Staircase, Tate Britain, London
2008 Kings Place Gallery, London
2008 Advanced Graphics, London
2007 Gimpel Fils, London
2006 Peppercanister Gallery, London
2003 The Storey Gallery, Lancaster
2003 Peter Scott Gallery, University of Lancaster
2005 Advanced Graphics, London
2001 West Cork Art Centre, Ireland
2000 Advanced Graphics, London
1999 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
1999 Orion Gallery, Brussels
1998 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
1998 Centre d’Art Contemporain, Meymac, France
1997 Gallerie Stühler, Berlin
1996 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
1995 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
1994 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
1994 Galerie Wassermann, Munich
1993 Campo Vlaamse Kaai, Antwerp
1992 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
1992 Galerie Klaus Lüpke, Frankfurt
1990 Serpentine Gallery, London and tour
Public collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Arts Council of Great Britain
Birmingham City Art Gallery
Blackburn Art Gallery
British Council
Huddersfield Art Gallery
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Manchester City Art Gallery
Mappin Gallery, Sheffield
Neue Gallerie der Stadt Linz, Austria
New England Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia
Pensecola Museum, Florida
Schindler Collection, Zurich
Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Stoke City Art Gallery
Stuyvesant Collection, Holland
Tate Gallery, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk
