Alexander Mackenzie (artist)

Alexander Mackenzie was a British abstract artist, member of the St Ives School and educator. Mackenzie was born on 9 April 1923 in Liverpool and died in Penzance on 18 September 2002. He painted mainly in Cornwall, also making regular visits to Cumbria. He was married to Coralie Crockett, and the couple had three daughters

He has one brother named Paul Mackenzie who had three daughters Alison, Alexandra and Elli Mackenzie. Alex Mackenzie has one boy named Ben Mackenzie and Elli Mackenzie-Barrow has two children named Felix and Charlie Mackenzie-Barrow.

At the beginning of the war his school as evacuated to Newburgh Priory, which was part of his introduction to art - he later described it as "a marvellous place, filled with tapestries and paintings".

As soon as he was old enough, he enlisted in the army, serving for 5 years in the armoured Inns of Court Regiment and fighting in the European theatre of war, including commanding an armoured car up the beaches on D-Day. In 1945 he was de-mobed and went to study at Liverpool College of Art.

In 1950, immediately after graduating from Liverpool, he moved to Cornwall, where he soon established close relationships with many artists, including Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth He was based there for the rest of his life.

For several years he taught art at Leskudjack school in Penzance before, in 1964, being invited to become a senior lecturer at Plymouth College of Art, where he stayed for 20 years, ending up as head of fine art.

In 1959, he had his first one-person exhibition, at the Waddington Galleries in London. In 1960, he took part in the 21st Watercolour Biennale in New York and, in 1962, he was in the Premio Marzotto exhibition in Rome.

His auction record is £27,500, set for Gwithian at Christie's, London, on 27 May 2010.

His Drawing, June 1963 is in the Tate collection. Two works are in the Arts Council collection.

Mackenzie's art work can be seen at Bishop Suter Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand, Brasenose College, University of Oxford, Bradford City Art Gallery, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collection, the Contemporary Art Society collection, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, the Nuffield Foundation collection, Plymouth City Art Gallery, Salford Museum & Art Gallery and York City Art Gallery.

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