Ivor Abrahams RA

Born: 10 January 1935, Wigan, Lancashire, UK
Elected ARA: 31 May 1989
Elected RA: 26 June 1991
Category of Membership: Sculptor

Ivor Abrahams RA, Caged Birds Abrahams studied at St Martin’s School of Art under Anthony Caro from 1952 to 1953 and at Camberwell School of Art under Karel Vogel from 1954 to 1957. He was apprenticed at the Fiorini Art bronze foundry in 1957 and went on to work as a display artist for Adele Rootstein. After extensive travel in Europe, he became a visiting lecturer in Sculpture at Birmingham College of Art and Coventry College of Art between 1960 and 1964. He was a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths College of Art, the Royal College of Art (Prints Department) and the Slade School of Art; from 2007 – 2010, he was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools.

Ivor Abrahams’s first show was with Peter Blake at the Portal Gallery in 1960. He also exhibited in the landmark '22 Young Sculptors' at the ICA in 1961. His first US solo show was with Richard Feigen Gallery in 1970. Abrahams established his international reputation with a major museum show at the Kolnisher Kunstverein, Cologne, in 1973. He went on to have solo shows in museums and private galleries in Europe and the United States. These include a major retrospective at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1984.

Ivor Abrahams RA, Prop

Group shows include Art Inglese Oggi, Pallazzo Reale, Milan (1976); Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Contemporary British Sculpture, Battersea Park (1977); Landscape Prints, Tate Gallery, London (1981); British Sculpture in the 20th Century, Whitechapel Art Gallery (1982); Sculpture 93, Chelsea Harbour, London (1993); Sculpture at Goodwood (commission: 2000); Bronze, British Contemporary Sculpture, Holland Park, London (2000); Carnival of Animals, The Hague (2001). Abrahams was elected a Royal Academician in 1991. In 1992 he moved to the South of France and returned to London in 1999. He now lives and works in England and France.

Watch a video interview with Ivor Abrahams RA about his Tennant Gallery exhibition in 2011

Recent solo exhibitions
2013 Mayor Gallery, London
2012 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2011 Tennant Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts
2007 Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Canary Wharf, London
Iain MacKenzie Fine Art, London
2001 A P Gianini Gallery, San Francisco,
from Bank of America Collection (Prints)
1999 Royal Academy of Arts, London (prints retrospective)
Mayor Gallery, London
Ian Mackenzie Fine Arts
1995 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
(sculpture retrospective – 5 decades)
1994 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
1991 Galerie Salis, Salzburg
1989 Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto
1987 Galerie Albrecht, Munich

Public collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
Arts Council of Great Britain
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Bradford Art Gallery and Museum
British Council, London
Buymans Museum, Rotterdam
City Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth
Denver Museum, Colorado
Fort Lauderdale Museum, Florida
Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Vaduz
Liverpool University
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Middlesbrough Art Gallery
Minneapolis Art Institute
Moore College, Philadelphia
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Norton College of Art, Miami
Rice University, Texas
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Sharjah Art Museum, UAE
Stoke City Art Gallery
Strassburg Museum
Tate Gallery, London
Vassar College Art Gallery, New York
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
Wilhem Lembruch Museum, Duisburg
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamston

Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

• Royal Academy of Arts