Ivor Abrahams (10 January 1935 – 6 January 2015) was a British sculptor, ceramicist 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" or "Bob" 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 Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...

Early life

Ivor Abrahams was born 10 January 1935 in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

, Lancashire to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

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 school, 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 beca ...

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' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

1952–54, and

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...

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.

Work

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

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, 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 m ...

, 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, 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 ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

and

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

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 Order of the British Empire, 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 ...

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 Barb ...

. 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 Mayor Gallery 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 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, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...

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 II* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition prog ...

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 (l ...

* British Council, London *

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

* Falmouth Art Gallery * Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge * Leeds Art Gallery * 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 UK ...

, London *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, 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 The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...

, Liverpool Europe *

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

* 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 k ...

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 A ...

* Denver Art Museum, Colorado * Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York * 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 List of largest art museums, largest ar ...

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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

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. The college be ...

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