From 6 September 2024 until the 24th of November 45 Park Lane is holding an exhibition that explores the life and works of influential Abstract Expressionist artist Albert Irvin OBE RA HRWA (1922-2015)—curated in collaboration with The Irvin Estate and Donald Smith with screenprints courtesy of Advanced Graphics London.
This exhibition will bring together key pieces from Irvin’s extraordinary body of work from the early 1970s – a period when his large-scale canvas works, with their signature high-colour and energetic mark-making, were not only pivotal to his development but also influential in the transformation of the British art scene of that and later decades. Also included are gentle watercolours that he worked on throughout the ‘70s along with breathtaking canvases from the ‘90s. The exhibition culminates in joyful, vibrant acrylics and technically complex, colourful original prints from the last decade of his life.
The artist’s enduring influence on the creative industries and younger generations is seen in the 2018 collaboration with fashion designer Henry Holland, who worked with the Estate to honour Irvin’s exuberant graphics, painterly hues and brushstrokes in unique minidresses, suits and knits for his Resort Collection. In further homage to Irvin and his practice, Holland shot the pieces in his long-standing studio, in Stepney Green, London. Irvin moved into the studio in 1971, through his affiliation with SPACE (Space Provision Artistic Cultural Education) which was founded by Irvin’s close friends and fellow artists Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley in 1968 – they all recognised the need for artists to have access to affordable studios in London and were inspired by similar initiatives in New York.
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.
His work has been widely exhibited both in the UK and worldwide, at Tate, the Royal Academy of Arts, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine, Whitechapel in London and many major city art galleries across the UK including Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol RWA, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin and Coventry Gallery in Sydney, Australia, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, Centre D’Art, Meymac, France, and Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne. Public collections of work include the Arts Council of Great Britain, Birmingham City Art Gallery, the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Contemporary Art Society, Manchester City Art Gallery, Tate Britain, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Warwick University Arts Centre.
The exhibition is displayed throughout the lobby and bar of 45 Park Lane and is open daily.
The exhibition is free to visit and there is no need to reserve a time slot. More information on the work and curator tours can be arranged via studio@ackermanstudios.com
Screenprints courtesy of Advanced Graphics London
For further press information and images contact: Alice Broughton at Alice Broughton Communications, e: alicerbroughton85@gmail.com
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These expansive, colourful and optimistic works rarely conjure up dark thoughts. They seem overwhelmingly to be celebrations of being alive and a true reflection of Bert's spirit.