London born abstract painter and printmaker Albert Irvin has died at the age of 92. Conceiving the picture space as a metaphorical landscape, Irvin explored and experimented with the possibilities of colour through a variety of media, from acrylic to watercolours, gouaches and screenprints.
Evacuated to Northamptonshire when war broke out in 1939 Irvin gained a scholarship to Northampton School of Art. He was called up in 1941 and after having served as a navigator for the Royal Air Force he resumed his studies at Goldsmiths College (1946–1950), where he also returned as a teacher between 1962 and 1983. Irvin’s style moved away from from impressionism and social realism in the mid-1950s, after which his focus settled on the abstract and the experimental.
Represented by Gimpel Fils, London, Irvin received an Arts Council Major Award and a Gulbenkian Award for printmaking in 1983. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1998 and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the visual arts.
30 March 2015.
