Keith Milow (born 29 December 1945 in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
) is a
British
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* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
artist. He grew up in
Baldock
Baldock ( ) is a historic market town and unparished area in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire, England, where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north n ...
,
Hertfordshire, and lived in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
(1980–2002) and
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
(2002–2014), now lives in London. He is an abstract sculptor, painter and printmaker. His work has been characterised as architectural, monumental, procedural, enigmatic and poetical.
Biography
Keith Milow was educated at
The Knights Templar School in
Baldock
Baldock ( ) is a historic market town and unparished area in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire, England, where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north n ...
,
Camberwell School of Art
Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgrad ...
, 1962–1967, and
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...
, 1967–1968. In 1970 he received a
Gregory Fellowship
Gregory may refer to:
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* Gregory (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
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*Gregory, Queensland, a town in the Shire of ...
from
Leeds University
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
, which was followed in 1972 by a
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several cou ...
to the USA.
During the 1970s, Milow was considered part of the British artistic avant-garde along with artists such as
Richard Long,
Gilbert & George
Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art d ...
,
Michael Craig-Martin
Sir Michael Craig-Martin (born 28 August 1941) is an Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is known for fostering and adopting the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, '' An Oak Tre ...
,
Mark Lancaster,
Tim Head,
Nicholas Pope,
John Walker,
David Tremlett
David Tremlett (born 13 February 1945 in St Austell, Cornwall) is an English/Swiss sculptor, installation artist and photographer. He lives and works in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, England. He is married to Laure Genillard who runs an art space in L ...
,
Barry Flanagan
Barry Flanagan OBE RA (11 January 1941 – 31 August 2009) was an Irish-Welsh sculptor. He is best known for his bronze statues of hares and other animals.
Biography
Barry Flanagan was born on 11 January 1941 in Prestatyn, North Wales. F ...
,
Art & Language and
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist.
Biography
Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...
. According to art historian Jo Melvin, Milow "helped to shape and define a critical period of new and experimental art practices in Britain when the distinctions between painting and sculpture and equally importantly between figuration and abstract collapsed".
Throughout his career Keith Milow has been pre-occupied with the form of the Latin
cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
which resulted in several hundred cross sculptures as well as drawings. During the 1990s, he produced series of disc-shaped sculptures ('
tondi') that pay tribute to what he considered the great artists of the 20th century. Paintings from this period frequently contain names from this personal
canon of modern art. Some of his painting and drawing demonstrate a mathematical precision that has the appearance of being computer-generated. Often his work is the result of a direct response to other artists' oeuvres, notably the Dutch painter
Piet Mondrian. In the words of Jo Melvin: "Milow's work is infused in the history of painting, the subject of painting and its meaning. Something else slips through in the game of chance. It is a piece of magic – the combination of mystery with structure, order and process".
Awards included the
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One ...
Award (1976), the
Arts Council of Great Britain Major Award (1979), the
Edward Albee Foundation Award (1983) and the
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expressio ...
Award (2017). In 2015, he was nominated for the Charles Wollaston Award of the
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
and in 2017 for the
Daiwa Foundation Art Prize.
Exhibitions
In 1970 Keith Milow had his first solo show with
Nigel Greenwood Gallery, an exhibition that sold out with
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
being one of the buyers.
[Melvin (2016), p. 4.] Greenwood continued to show Milow until 1992. Other galleries that held solo exhibitions of his work include Duffy & Sons, New York (1973), Hester Van Royen Gallery, London (1975),
Kettle's Yard
Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities.
Kettle's Yard galleries, shop and caf ...
Gallery, Cambridge (1976), Gallerie Albert Baronian, Brussels (1977), Park Square Gallery, Leeds (1977), Roundhouse Gallery, London (1978), Galerie Loyse Oppenheim, Geneva (1979), Annina Nosei Gallery, New York (1981, 1982), Alexander Wood Gallery, New York (1987), John Davis Gallery, New York (1988), Gallery 630B, New Orleans (1990), Nohra Haime Gallery, New York (1990–99), Aicart & Aijtink, Hilversum (2007–13), and Dadiani Fine Art, London (2017).
Group exhibitions included the '
Young Contemporaries' at
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
(1967), 'Six at the Hayward',
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
(1969), ' Works on Paper',
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(1971), British exhibition,
Art Basel
Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...
(1975), 'Arte Inglese Oggi',
Palazzo Reale, Milan (1976), 'British Painting 1952–1977',
Royal Academy of Art
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
(1977), 'British Art Now',
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
(1980), 'Aspects of British Art Today', Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982), ' Modern British Sculpture',
Whitechapel Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...
(1986), 'Modern British Sculpture',
Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development C ...
(1988), 'Contemporary British Artists: Mirror up to Nature',
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...
(1998), 'United Enemies: Sculpture in 1960s and 1970s Britain',
Henry Moore Institute
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(2011–12), '
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
',
Royal Academy of Arts (2015–17, 2019), and '
BP Portrait Award
The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly ...
',
National Portrait Gallery (2019).
Collections
Works of Milow are included in public collections, such as
Tate Galleries
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
,
Imperial War Museum,
Henry Moore Foundation
The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with a gift from the arti ...
,
Leeds City Art Gallery
Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...
,
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...
,
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest),
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(NYC),
Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Museums in this group include:
Locations
Americas
* The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
,
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...
,
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...
,
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...
,
Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...
,
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
and
Art Gallery of South Australia. An important commission of 1998 was the piece ''20th Century - Thames'', consisting of four large tondi in the lobby of
One Canada Square
One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It was completed in 1991 and is the third tallest building in the United Kingdom at above ground levelAviation charts issued by the Civil Aviation Authority containing 50 storeys.
On ...
(
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...
, London).
KeithMilow-tondo.jpg, ''20th Century - Thames'', 1998
KeithMilow-cross.jpg, Cross sculpture, 2005
KeithMilow-afterwords.jpg, ''After Words'', 2008
Keith Milow, Men's Eyes (2016).jpeg, ''Men's Eyes'', 2016
Sources
*
Debrett's ''People of Today'' 2006, ed. Charles Mosley, London 2006 (page 1134)
References
External links
*
TateDadiani Fine Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milow, Keith
1945 births
Living people
People educated at The Knights Templar School, Baldock
Alumni of Camberwell College of Arts
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Harkness Fellows
English contemporary artists
English male painters
20th-century English painters
21st-century English painters
English sculptors
English male sculptors
20th-century British sculptors
21st-century British sculptors
English printmakers
20th-century British printmakers
English LGBT people
Gay artists
Postminimalist artists
20th-century English male artists
21st-century English male artists