Having studied at the Northampton School of Art during World War Two, and Goldsmiths College afterwards (serving as an RAF navigator in the war itself) Albert Irvin set about on his career as an abstract expressionist painter which gained him wide-ranging acknowledgements. He was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1998 and his works have been displayed there regularly.

Biographical Information

1922 Born London.1940 Student at Northampton School of Art. 1941 Joined Royal Air Force to become Navigator. 1946-1950 Student at Goldsmiths’ College, London. 1962-1983 Teaching at Goldsmiths’ College, London.

Awards: 1968 Arts Council Award to visit USA. 1975 Arts Council Major Award. 1982 Gulbenkian Award for Printmaking. 1986 Giles Bequest Prize at Bradford Print Biennale.

1998 ‘Albert Irvin – Life to Painting’, monograph written by Paul Moorhouse, published by Lund Humphries.

Selected Public And Corporate Collections: Aberdeen Art Gallery; Anglo American plc, London; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Arthur Andersen, London; Arts Council of Great Britain; British Council; Chase Manhatten Bank; Chelsea and Westminster Hospital; Clipstream, London; Contemporary Art Society; Deutsche Bank, London and Frankfurt; Government Art Collection; Irish Museum of Modern Art; Mobil Oil; National Westminster Bank; Pensecola Museum, Florida; Schindler Collection, Zurich; Stuyvesant Collection,  Holland; Tate Gallery, London; Unilever; Victoria and Albert Museum; City Art Galleries in Birmingham, Blackburn, Huddersfield, Manchester, Stoke and Wolverhampton; University Art Galleries/Collections in Cambridge (Jesus College, Churchill College), Dublin (Trinity College), Lancaster, Liverpool, Northumbria, Oxford (St Johns College), Southampton, Warwick and Woolongong, Australia.