Biography
Albert
Irvin studied at Northampton School of Art from 1940 to 1941,
before serving as a navigator in the RAF during Wold War II. He
went on to study at Goldsmiths College, where he later retuned
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 in Edinburgh and he subsequently
has had many one-man shows internationally and at the Gimpel
Fils Gallery in London. A major retrospective of his work from
1960 to 1989 was held at the Serpentine Gallery 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'. |