Alexander Mackenzie (artist)

Alexander Mackenzie was a British abstract artist, member of the St Ives School and educator. Mackenzie was born on 9 April 1923 in Liverpool and died in Penzance on 18 September 2002.[1] He painted mainly in Cornwall, also making regular visits to Cumbria. He was married to Coralie Crockett, and the couple had three daughters


He had a brother named Paul Mackenzie who had three daughters Alison, Alexandra and Elli Mackenzie. Alexandra has a son named Ben Mackenzie and Elli has a son named Felix and a daughter named Charlie.[2]

Career

At the beginning of the war his school as evacuated to Newburgh Priory, which was part of his introduction to art - he later described it as "a marvellous place, filled with tapestries and paintings".[3]

As soon as he was old enough, he enlisted in the army, serving for 5 years in the armoured Inns of Court Regiment and fighting in the European theatre of war, including commanding an armoured car up the beaches on D-Day.[4] In 1945 he was de-mobed and went to study at Liverpool College of Art.

In 1950, immediately after graduating from Liverpool, he moved to Cornwall, where he soon established close relationships with many artists, including Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth[5] He was based there for the rest of his life.

For several years he taught art at Leskudjack school in Penzance before, in 1964, being invited to become a senior lecturer at Plymouth College of Art, where he stayed for 20 years, ending up as head of fine art.

In 1959, he had his first one-person exhibition, at the Waddington Galleries in London.[6] In 1960, he took part in the 21st Watercolour Biennale in New York and, in 1962, he was in the Premio Marzotto exhibition in Rome.

His auction record is £27,500, set for Gwithian at Christie's, London, on 27 May 2010.[7]

Collections

His Drawing, June 1963 is in the Tate collection.[8] Two works are in the Arts Council collection.[9]

Mackenzie's art work can be seen at Bishop Suter Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand, Brasenose College, University of Oxford, Bradford City Art Gallery, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collection, the Contemporary Art Society collection, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, the Nuffield Foundation collection, Plymouth City Art Gallery,[10] Salford Museum & Art Gallery[11] and York City Art Gallery.

Exhibitions

Mackenzie exhibited widely throughout his life and posthumously, and was included in the following significant exhibitions:

Solo Exhibitions
  • 1959, 1961, 1963: Waddington Galleries, London
  • 1960, 1962: Durlachers Gallery, New York
  • 1965: Paintings by Alexander Mackenzie, Plymouth City Art Gallery
  • 1965, 1968, 1970: Maltzahn Gallery, London
  • 1977: Retrospective Exhibition Paintings and Drawing by Alexander Mackenzie, the Truro Gallery
  • 1980: Newlyn Orion Gallery, Newlyn
  • 1982: Festival Gallery, Bath
  • 1999: Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
  • 2007: Austin/Desmond Fine Art [12]

Selected Group Exhibitions
  • 1952: Penwith Society of Arts, St Ives (and then annually)
  • 1955: Daily Express Young Artists Exhibition, London
  • 1959: Whitechapel Art Gallery Graven Image
  • 1959: Arte Grafica Britanico, Bogota, Colombia
  • 1960: Bradford City Art Gallery, Contemporary British Art
  • 1960: Brooklyn Museum, 21st International Water Colour Biennal, New York,
  • 1961: Arts Council Exhibition, New Painting 58-61
  • 1962-63: Premio Marzotto E L’Arte, European Community Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Rome, Milan and London
  • 1970: Plymouth City Art Gallery, Alexander Mackenzie and Bryan Wynter
  • 1975: Plymouth City Art Gallery, Painting & Sculpture 1975
  • 1977: New Art Centre, Cornwall 1944-55
  • 1977: Kunst Aus Cornwall, Cuxhaven, Germany
  • 1984: Newlyn/Orion, Second Nature, toured to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
  • 1985: Tate Gallery, St Ives 1939-64
  • 1985: Plymouth City Art Gallery, Landscape: Fact and Feeling
  • 1986: Pallant House Gallery, Cornwall in the 80s
  • 1987: Newlyn Art Gallery, Looking West, touring to the Royal College of Art, London
  • 1992: Royal West of England Academy, Artists in Cornwall

Bibliography
  • Herbert Read & Roland Penrose: Premio Marzotto Award Catalogue, 1963
  • A. Cumming: Profile of Alexander Mackenzie, Arts Review, Vol XX No.20
  • Sir Herbert Read: Contemporary British Art, Penguin Publications, 1964
  • Dictionary of Twentieth Century Art, Phaidon Press, 1973
  • Tate Gallery, Catalogue of Acquisitions 1976-8
  • Arts Council Collection, 1979
  • Richard Mabey: Second Nature, Jonathon Cape, 1984
  • Tate Gallery, St Ives 1939-64, Tate Gallery Publications, 1985
  • Alan Windsor: Handbook of Modern British Painting 1900-1980, Scolar Press, 1992
  • Peter Davies: St Ives Revisited, Old Bakehouse Publications, 1994
  • Melissa Hardie: 100 Years in Newlyn/Diary of a Gallery, Pattten Press, 1995
  • David Archer: Alexander Mackenzie, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 1999
  • Michael Bird: Alexander Mackenzie: In character, Austin/Desmond, 2007

References
  1. Obituary in the Times, 18 October 2002
  2. Peter Davies: brief biography of Alexander Mackenzie
  3. quoted in his Times obituary, 18 October 2002
  4. Austin-Desmond exhibition catalogue, 2007
  5. Jenny Burlingham Fine Art: brief biography of Alexander Mackenzie.
  6. Obituary in the Times, 18 October 2002
  7. Alexander Mackenzie in Christie's auction catalogue 20th Century British and Irish Art, May 2010
  8. Alexander Mackenzie in the Tate collection
  9. Granite, Brown, Black on White, 1963 in the Arts Council collection
  10. Bonehill, Dartmore in Plymouth City Art Gallery
  11. Relief in Salford Museum & Art Gallery
  12. Austin Desmond exhibition
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