Albert Irvin 亞伯特·厄文

Albert Irvin OBE RA was born in 1922 in London, where he continued to live and work throughout his life. In the early 1940’s Irvin attended Northampton School of Art. His studies were interrupted when he was called to national service, serving as a navigator in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. After the war ended he enrolled at Goldsmiths College in London to resume his studies. In 1962, he returned to Goldsmiths where he taught for twenty years. He also taught as visiting lecturer at art colleges throughout Britain.

Irvin’s first solo exhibition was in 1960 at 57 Gallery, Edinburgh followed by New Art Centre in London in 1963 and 1965. He went on to exhibit extensively throughout Europe, the USA and Australia. A major retrospective of his work from 1960 to 1989 was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1990. Irvin was awarded a Travel Award to America by the Arts Council in 1968 and later received an Arts Council Major Award. In 1970 he moved into his Studio in Stepney Green and continued travelling to work there from his home, at least 3 times a week, into his 90s.

His works are held in many public collections including Tate, Royal Academy and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The British Council; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Manchester City Art Gallery; Leeds Art Gallery and The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. In 1998 Irvin was elected Royal Academician and in 2013 was awarded the OBE in the Queens’s Birthday Honours List for services to the visual arts. He continued painting and printmaking until he died on 26th March 2015, aged 92 in St George’s Hospital, London.