BRISTOL.- The Royal West of England Academy is presenting the first major retrospective of British artist Albert Irvin, alongside a 60th anniversary celebration of the seminal exhibition, The New American Painting.

Albert Irvin RA OBE (1922-2015) was one of Britain’s most important post-war painters and printmakers. He is best known for his large-scale abstract colourist paintings - some of the most distinctive to have ever been produced in this country.

Sixty years ago in 1959, Irvin visited an exhibition called The New American Painting at Tate. This MOMA curated show brought the boldest and best new artistic talent from across the Atlantic to London. The exhibition redefined what was possible for a generation of British artists. It made them question existing European styles and challenged their understanding of scale, gesture, meaning and medium.

For Irvin, it was an epiphany.

‘It affected everybody…even people who weren’t interested in art. It had a ripple effect for so many artists and art schools…But what struck me was the energy, the kind of confidence that all the works seemed to express.’ Basil Beattie on The New American Painting

This spectacular and original new exhibition not only considers how Irvin’s work was profoundly shaped by this experience, but also how The New American Painting changed the perspectives of many British artists.

Albert Irvin and Abstract Expressionism brings together works by major abstract expressionist artists from the late 1950s. Important loans have been secured from Tate including works by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Sam Francis and Adolph Gottlieb. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see international loans by Jack Tworkov and Grace Hartigan, two of the original exhibitors in The New American Painting.

These are being shown alongside other UK abstract artists, such as Peter Lanyon, Basil Beattie, Gillian Ayres, John Hoyland and Sandra Blow.

Albert Irvin and Abstract Expressionism also charts Irvin’s earlier practice in a room featuring the British ‘Kitchen Sink’ artists including Edward Middleditch, John Bratby and Peter Coker.

This major exhibition draws new links between British art and American Abstract Expressionism, whilst also providing a unique overview of the career of one of Britain’s most important post-war artists.

The exhibition is curated by President of Academicians, Stewart Geddes - a former student and friend of Albert Irvin.