Ivan Albright

BIOGRAPHY
1897-1983

American figure and still-life painter, and occasional sculptor, born in Chicago; son of the painter Adam Emory Albright, a pupil of Eakins. Began to draw under his father's direction and posed for his father's pictures. Studied 1915-16 at Northwestern University, and 1916-17 at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in the Department of Architecture. While in the army 1918-19 was employed to make watercolour drawings of wounds. Afterwards worked briefly in an architectural office and at advertising, then decided to become a painter. Studied at the Art Institute of Chicago 1920-3, followed by one term each at the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Academy of Design, New York. Lived at Warrenville, Illinois, 1924-46. By 1927-8 had begun to paint figures with sharply focused detail and an emphasis on sagging flesh and textures suggestive of decay and death. First one-man exhibition at the Walden Book Shop, Chicago, 1930. In 1943-4 painted a portrait for the film The Portrait of Dorian Gray. His works also include elaborate still-life compositions of a disturbing, symbolic kind. Has lived since 1946 in Chicago.

Published in:

Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.7