Contemporary abstract artist and Royal Academician Ian McKeever has generously donated three artworks to Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) to be included in the University's permanent collection.
An Honorary Fellow of AUB, McKeever announced his decision to donate the artworks following his exhibition, Ian McKeever: Against Architecture, which took place at the University as part of TheGallery's 25th anniversary celebrations in 2023. This exhibition was a new configuration of an installation originally curated by Robin Klassnik of Matt's Gallery, London, in 2017.
Two of the works donated, Eagduru Study (2013) and Eagduru Study (2014) were part of the Against Architecture exhibition.
Former AUB Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Gough, and TheGallery Curator and Manager Violet M. McClean joined McKeever at his studio in June 2024 to select the large painting, Here I, from the Four Quartet series, on behalf of the University.
McKeever played a significant role in TheGallery's history as the first artist to exhibit in 2003, alongside poet David Miller. He was later a panel member in 2021 on The Grammar of Drawing panel discussion.
As part of the Against Architecture exhibition at AUB, TheGallery and ANOMIE Publishing collaborated on a new publication, also entitled Against Architecture, which is published under TheGallery's text + work series. In her chapter titled, The Curator’s Passage in Time, Violet talks about the exhibition at AUB, McKeever's art practice, and his relationship with the University.
At the celebration event for Paul Gough in January, Violet said, "On behalf of the University, I would like to formally acknowledge and thank our AUB Honorary Fellow of 2002, renowned artist Ian McKeever, for his generous donation of three artworks to AUB’s art collection.
"Ian is not just an Honorary Fellow, he is a good friend of the University, too.”
An AUB Honorary Fellowship is a highly prestigious award which the University bestow to persons who have connected with AUB and made a significant contribution to the field of arts, design, media or performance in a professional capacity or an educational role.
Ian McKeever’s first solo exhibition was held in 1973 at the ICA, London. In 1989, he was awarded the prestigious DAAD scholarship in Berlin, which was followed in 1990 by a major retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. He's participated in numerous museums exhibitions including Dialogue, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1985); New Abstraction, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid and Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (1996); Royal Academicians in China, National Gallery, Beijing, Shanghai Art Museum and Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005); Tate Britain (2011), and National Museum of Norway (2012).
Solo museums exhibitions include Kunsthalle Nuremberg, Kunstverein Braunschweig (1987); Porin Taidemuseo (1997); Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense (2001); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2010); Sønderjylland Kunstmuseum (2011); Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop (2012), and Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne (2014).
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including Tate, British Museum, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna; Museum of Fine Art, Budapest; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Glyptotek, Copenhagen; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Boston Museum of Fine Art and Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut.
In 2003, Ian McKeever was appointed a Royal Academician.
