Ivor Abrahams (10 January 1935 – 6 January 2015) was a British sculptor,

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Wh ...

and print maker best known for his polychrome sculptures and his stylised prints of garden scenes. His career long exploration of new subject matter, novel techniques and materials made his art dealer, James Mayor, describe him as Europe's equivalent of

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

Early life

Ivor Abrahams was born 10 January 1935 in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington ...

, Lancashire to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, the eldest of 2 children. Both parents were born in Manchester area - Ray (Rachael) née Kalisky / Kay and Harry (Hyman) Abrahams - but all four grandparents came from eastern Europe. He studied sculpture at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...

under Frank Martin and

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' industrial objects. His style was of the modernist school, having worked with Henry Moor ...

1952–54, and

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 ...

under Karel Vogel and Martin Bloch 1954–57. In 1957, he became apprentice to the Fiorini Bronze Foundry, and went on to work as a display artist for

Adel Rootstein Adel Rootstein (1930 – 20 September 1992) was a British mannequin designer responsible for premium designs that are sold worldwide. Early life Rootstein was born in Warmbaths, South Africa in 1930. She married the industrial designer Richar ...

Work

His first show, in 1960, was at the Portal Gallery with Peter Blake. Through

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March ...

, he was included in the landmark 1961 ICA exhibition ''26 Young Sculptors'', together with Phillip King and

Maurice Agis Maurice Agis (7 December 1931 – 12 October 2009) was a British sculptor and artist whose ''Dreamspace'' projects drew the involvement and work of various schools and art institutions all over Britain. His disillusionment with galleries and mu ...

, friends from the St Martin's days. By the late 1960s Abrahams had found inspiration in the imagery of domestic gardens. As well as bronze, he started using new material for his work, nylon flocking, pre-vulcanized latex, styrene and plastics. After a solo show at the Richard Feigen Gallery in New York in 1970, he established his international reputation with a major museum show at the Kolnisher Kunstverein Cologne in 1973. In 1975, he met James Mayor who invited him to show the following year at the

Mayor Gallery The Mayor Gallery is an art gallery located in Cork Street, London, England. Since its foundation by Fred Mayor in partnership with Douglas Cooper in 1925, it has promoted modern and contemporary art. Since the early 1970s, under the new impul ...

, thus beginning an association which continued till his death. Abrahams' print output includes his garden series and suites celebrating

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...

and

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

showcased in a Royal Academy exhibition in 2010. His body of prints was published by Bernard Jacobson who regularly exhibited his work in London and the US. In 1982,

Bryan Robertson Bryan Robertson OBE (1 April 1925 – 18 November 2002) was an English curator and arts manager described by ''Studio International'' as "the greatest Director the Tate Gallery never had". Biography Robertson was born in London and educated at Ba ...

organised an exhibition of the sculptures at the Warwick Arts Trust and in 1984 he was invited to mount his first sculpture retrospective at the

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbar ...

. Abrahams' post-Cubist architectural structures of the 90s resulted in a commission by the Goodwood Sculpture Park and the purchase of the bronze ''Head of the Stairs'' by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. In the 2000s a series of owls and cockerels, using various media, including enamel on steel epoxy resin and decal, culminated in the 2005

exhibition 'A Parliament of Owls'. 2007 saw a mini retrospective entitled ''The Four Seasons of Ivor Abrahams'' at One Canada Square in Canary Wharf. In 2008 the

Henry Moore Institute Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

mounted an exhibition of early work untitled ''By Leafy Ways'' showing the 1972 film of the same name, which prompted a reintroduction of the Garden image. In 2012, a retrospective at the

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition progra ...

was accompanied by an Andrew Lambirth monograph: Eden and Other Suburbs, the Life and Work of Ivor Abrahams.

Selected public collections

UK *

Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884 in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900, it received the art ...

* Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol *

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council ( ...

* British Council, London *

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Falmouth Art Gallery Falmouth Art Gallery is a publicly funded art gallery in Cornwall, with one of the leading art collections in Cornwall and southwest England, which features work by old masters, major Victorian artists, British and French Impressionists, leadin ...

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

Leeds 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" ...

* Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art * Royal Collection, London *

Tate Gallery 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 ...

, London *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London *

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

, Liverpool Europe *

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

* Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam *

Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) is an art museum in Strasbourg, France, which was founded in 1973 and opened in its own building in November 1998. One of the largest of its ...

US *

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, Colorado * Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida *

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

* Menil Collection, Houston *

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

Museum of Modern Art, New York 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 o ...

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

References

Sources

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External links

Ivor Abrahams Official site

Abrahams at the Tate Gallery

Abrahams at the British Council

Ivor Abrahams exhibitions at the Mayor Gallery

Ivor Abrahams exhibitions at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery

Abrahams on ArtNet
* 1935 births 2015 deaths Contemporary sculptors English contemporary artists English Jews English male sculptors English printmakers English sculptors Royal Academicians {{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahams, Ivor