Ken Kiff

Among British artists during the second half of the twentieth century, Ken Kiff displays one of the most individual and distinctive styles. His paintings and drawings in various mediapastel, charcoal, watercolorare often characterized by fantastic flights of the imagination, inspired by such artists as Klee and Mira. Most notable of all is the extensive range of small acrylic paintings on paper (almost 200 in total since 1971), to which Kiff has given the overall title "The Sequence," suggesting a sense of continuity over the decades. Born in Dagenham, Essex, in 1935, Kiff's childhood during the Second World War was blighted by the loss of his father, who was killed in London in 1941. The effects of these traumatic years are inevitably reflected in the style and imagery of much of his work. After leaving school, he continued his studies at the Hornsey School of Art and subsequently taught part-time in London at the Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Kiff's travels have included a visit to India in 1981 and several working trips to the United States, where he collaborated with the leading printmaker Garner Tullis at his studios in Santa Barbara and New York City. His works have been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in England and Scotland, as well as in various European cities. He has also been featured in exhibitions in New York (the Museum of Modern Art, the Edward Thorp Gallery, and the Pamela Auchinloss Gallery) and Washington (the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden). Works by Kiff may be seen in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill. 175 illustrations, 150 in color.