Ian McKeever began painting in 1969, renting a studio from SPACE, London, following a degree in English Literature. His first solo show in London came four years later at the ICA. In 1989 he was awarded the prestigious DAAD scholarship in Berlin, and this was followed in 1990 by a major retrospective exhibition of his work at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. In the early years his work was landscape-based, reflecting the many journeys he made to such places as Greenland, Papua New Guinea and Siberia. He stopped making direct references to the landscape in the mid 1980s, and his work became more abstract, reflecting a growing interest in the human body and architectural structures. The quality of light and presence in McKeever’s paintings have become increasingly important over the years. He has held various teaching positions; was Guest Professor at the Städel Akademie der Kunst in Frankfurt, was Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools from 2006-2011, and is Visiting Professor of Painting at the University of Brighton since 2001.
Born: 1946 in Withernsea, East Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality: British
Elected RA: 23 May 2003
Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2022
Honorary officer: Eranda Professor of Drawing 2006 - 2011, Chairman, Collections and Library Committee 2009 - 2015, Member of Council, RA 2013 - 2015
Gender: Male
Ian McKeever RA, Temple Painting (FQ), 2005–6.
Ian McKeever RA, Portrait of a Woman, 2014-15.
Ian Mckeever, Henge Painting V, 2017.
Ian Mckeever, Henge Painting VIII, 2017.
Ian McKeever RA, Portrait of a Woman, 2015.
Ian Mckeever, Henge Gouache, 2017.
Ian Mckeever, Henge Gouache IX, 2017.
In Ian McKeever’s eyes, light falling on furniture and on objects has a transformative effect, prompting him to create an image of what he is seeing. In this video, he discusses how he attempts to capture this moment of change and transmutation.
2016 Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
2015 National Gallery of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn
2014 Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne
Horsens Kunstmuseum, Denmark
Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen
HackelBury Fine Art, London
2013 Galleri Andersson/Sandström, Stockholm, Sweden
2012 Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen
Josef Albers Museum, Quadrat, Bottrop, Germany
Galerie Nanna Preussners, Hamburg
2011 Sonderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tonder, Denmark
2010 Royal Academy of Arts, London
Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen
2009 Kings Place Gallery, London
Galleri Andersson Sandström, Stockholm
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
2008 Alan Cristea Gallery, London
Tate Gallery, London
British Museum, London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London
British Council, London
Government Art Collection of Great Britain, London
Red Mansion Foundation, London
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Yale Centre for British Art, Connecticut
Cincinnati Museum of Modern Art, Cincinnati
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk Denmark
New Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Horsens Kunstmuseum, Horsens
Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tønder
Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
Porin Taidemuseo, Pori
Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg
Museum of Fine Art, Budapest
Ian McKeever, Twelve Standing and Three, Essay by Mark Prince, Horsens Kunstmuseum, Denmark (in Danish and English), 2014
Ian McKeever, Hours of Darkness Hours of Light, Essay by Guido Schlimbach, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne and Kunstmuseet I Tønder, Denmark (in German and Danish), 2014
Ian McKeever, Eagduru/Against Architecture, Introduction by Magnus Thorø Clausen, Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen and Walther König Verlag, Cologne, 2014
Ian Mckeever, Against Photography: Early Works, 1975-1990, Essay by Mark Prince, HackelBury Fine Art, London, 2014
Ian McKeever, Hartgrove, Paintings and Photographs, Introduction and essay by Heinz Liesbrock, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany (in English and German), 2012
McKeever: Black and Black again…Paintings 1987-2010, Foreword by Ove Mogensen with writings by the artist dating from 1982-2009, Museum Sønderjyland, Kunstmuseet i Tønder, Denmark (in English and Danish), 2011
Artists’ Laboratory: Ian McKeever RA. Hartgrove Paintings and Photographs, Essay by Norbert Lynton, ‘Ian McKeever: Hartgrove Paintings 1992-1994’, and Ian McKeever in conversation with Richard Deacon, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2010
Ian McKeever: Paintings, Essays by Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Michael Tucker, Catherine Lampert, and Ian McKeever, Lund Humphries, London, 2009
Ian McKeever: Assembly. Paintings and Works on Paper 2006-2007, Essay by Jill Lloyd, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, 2008
Ian McKeever: Four Quartets, Paintings 2001-2007, Essay by Martin Caiger-Smith, Freiburg i Br. & Cologne, 2007
The colour white can be as challenging for the painter as the blank white sheet of paper is for the writer. Ian McKeever RA reflects on James McNeill Whistler’s ability to create form using one of the most elusive colours.
Mindfulness techniques can aid an authentic encounter with an artwork, especially those of the Abstract Expressionists, suggests Gill Crabbe.
As the Academy celebrates the American master, painter Ian McKeever RA explores Richard Diebenkorn’s profound inquiry into the nature of abstraction.
From contemporary takes on Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’ to early works by Ian McKeever RA.
