Keith Albarn

Keith Albarn (born 28 January 1939 in Nottingham) is an English artist and the father of the musician, Damon Albarn and the artist, Jessica Albarn.[1]

Keith Albarn
Keith Albarn at the Level Best Cafe in Colchester sitting next to Hazel Albarn who is reading a newspaper with an article about Keith.
Born (1939-01-28) 28 January 1939
Nottingham, England
NationalityBritish
EducationNottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design
Known forMathematics and art, systems art, psychedelia, design

Biography

He attended West Bridgford Grammar School. He was a conscientious objector to post-World War National Service, following his father, Edward Albarn, who had been a conscientious objector in World War II.[2]

Albarn studied architecture at Nottingham School of Art where he met fellow student Hazel Dring, whom he married[3] in 1963 in Welton, Lincolnshire. They moved to London where he studied sculpture at Hammersmith School of Art.[4]

Throughout the 1960s, Albarn worked freelance to finance environmental art projects including "Interplay" at the ICA. Also at this time, a gallery was set up at 26 Kingly Street, which was run by a group of artists including Albarn and his wife, Hazel, who also exhibited her work there.[5] In 1967 Malcolm McLaren presented his first public showing of work, which was based around an environmental installation.[6] In the same year, Jeffrey Shaw and Tjebbe van Tijen presented Breathing, Airmatter, Soundform.[7]

In 1967, Keith Albarn & Partners. Ltd was established to design and produce "modular structures and multi-media environments for festivals, exhibitions or private clients who want anything from weather-proof golf course shelters to a children's playhouse".[4] In 1968, they contributed to the exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity at the ICA that was curated by Jasia Reichardt.[8] Also in 1968, Ekistikit was launched at Margate's Dreamland Amusement Park in Kent via Spectrum, the first 'psychedelic' Fun Palace[9] which had 20 different chambers where the participants were able to explore and stimulate their senses by awakening each room. The second Fun Palace was called Fifth Dimension and was presented at Girvan on the West coast of Scotland,[10] and featured on Tomorrow's World and in their 1970 annual.[11] Keith's Ekistikit system was flexible and was also used as furniture for the style-conscious of the seventies as well as for children's playgrounds.[12] In 2002 a version of Ekistikit was presented as an exhibition by Unit with Jim Birdsell at the Spiral Gallery in Japan.[13]

In the sixties, Keith Albarn was involved in presenting 'happenings',[14] was a guest on Late Night Line-Up[15] and briefly managed the band Soft Machine[16] after travelling with them to the Côte d'Azur where his flat-pack Fun Palace was used as a gig venue.

Albarn began researching pattern in the 1970s after he formed Vertex,[17] a group made up of Keith Albarn, Jenny Miall-Smith, Stanford Steele, and Dinah Walker, that worked on the research, design and construction for the first 'World of Islam festival' at the ICA in 1974 that later on became Islamathematica when displayed in Rotterdam.[18] Vertex also worked on the exhibition "Illusion in Art and Science" that was shown at the ICA in 1976 and in New York in 1977 and which led to the book Illusion in Nature and Art by R. L. Gregory and E. H. Gombrich. He was co-author of The Language of Pattern[19] in 1974 and Diagram: The Instrument of Thought[20] in 1977.

From 1977–1981, he was course leader of fine art at North East London Polytechnic. From 1981 to 1997 he was the head of the Colchester School of Art, opened in 1885, which is based in the Colchester Institute.[21] Whilst in Colchester he helped set up Cuckoo Farm Studios and formed CADVAT (Colchester and District Visual Arts Forum) that later led to the development of firstsite.[22]

Pattern and belief
Installation view from Pattern and Belief, at The Minories Galleries

In 2013, The Minories Galleries presented a body of work that was developed from over forty years of research; a progression of patterns developed from a simple number game. It was on display from 18 May to 13 July 2013. For over forty years Keith Albarn had been researching number systems and patterns, and their relationship to belief systems and creativity. Taking a simple number game as a starting point he developed an infinite number of new patterns that connect across various dimensions allowing endless possibilities for outcomes. Some of these possibilities were displayed at The Minories Galleries through a patterned environment, prints, sculptural forms, artist's games and sound-works. As part of the exhibition a library and collection of material further explained this area of research.[23] One of the reviewers wrote that 'Albarn's vividly engaging artworks [were] a blend of intellect and intuition [...] pattern as both order and permeable vision'.[1]

References
  1. Merrick, Jay (23 May 2013). "Art by Damon Albarn's father is anything but Blurry". The Independent. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  2. Mulholland, Garry (20 September 2003). "Special relationships". The Observer. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  3. Patterson, Mark (10 January 2014). ""You could say I am from here" says Damon Albarn at Nottingham exhibition". Nottingham Post. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  4. Oberbeck, S. K. (15 July 1968). "Massage Parlors for Jaded Senses". Alicia Patterson Foundation. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  5. "Artists' Own Gallery". Carnaby Echoes. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  6. "Malcolm McLaren – News, Music Performances and Show Video Clips". MTV. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  7. "Art Action Academia - Tjebbe van Tijen". imaginarymuseum.org. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  8. Reichardt, Jasia (1969). Cybernetic serendipity; the computer and the arts. Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Phillips Academy. New York, Praeger. p. 5.
  9. Fun Palace. British Pathé. 3 October 1968. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  10. Best, Alastair (November 1969). "Funny business at the seaside". Design Journal (251): 58–61 – via VADS.
  11. Stubbs, David (2008). Tomorrow's world : genius gadgets and gizmos : weird and wonderful contraptions from yesterday's future. London: BBC. ISBN 978-1-84607-578-0. OCLC 236120503.
  12. London Beware. British Pathé. 4 July 1968. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  13. "Ekistikit Modular Building System". Pattern and Belief. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  14. Swinging Britain. British Pathé. 31 August 1967. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  15. Keith Albarn on Late Night Line-Up on YouTube
  16. Bennett, Graham (2005). Soft Machine: Out-bloody-rageous. London: SAF. ISBN 978-0-946719-84-6.
  17. "Artists". Contemporary Artworks. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  18. Ros, Fred; Albarn, Keith; Hutt, Anthony. Islamathematica (in Dutch). Rotterdam: Museum voor Land- en Volkenkunde.
  19. Albarn, Keith; Miall-Smith, Jenny; Steele, Stanford; Walker, Dinah (1974). The Language of Pattern: An Enquiry Inspired by Islamic Decoration. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23190-6.
  20. Albarn, Keith; Miall-Smith, Jenny (1977). Diagram : the instrument of thought. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0500011869.
  21. "Colchester School of Art". Colchester Institute. Retrieved 30 December 2020. At Colchester School of Art we are proud to have a history dating from 1885, the year the original Art School was founded.
  22. Gayle, Vicky (21 August 2016). "Art leaders Anthony Roberts and Keith Albarn honoured by university". Daily Gazette & Essex County Standard. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  23. "Pattern and Belief". Colchester School of Art. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
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