About

 

IAN HOWARD  Artist

Practising artist specialising in painting, drawing and printmaking.  Particular research interests include:  art and science, alchemical symbolism, hermeticism, emblems, medieval and renaissance iconography.  Lives and works in France.

1.         GENERAL BIOGRAPHY

1952

Born Aberdeen, Scotland

1970-75

University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art

1975-76

Edinburgh College of Art (Post-Graduate School)

1976-77

Helen Rose Travelling Scholarship to Italy

Studied in Florence, Siena, Venice and Milan

Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy

1979

Scottish Arts Council Award

1983

Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture

1983-86

Lecturer in Painting, Grays School of Art, Aberdeen

1984-87

Board of Directors of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh

1984-85

Scottish Arts Council Major Bursary

Appointed Head of Painting, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee

Director of Alba Magazine

1990-95

Member of Scottish Arts Council Awards Panel

1990

Awarded Sir William Gillies Bequest Scholarship, Royal Scottish Academy,

Travelled in India and Thailand

1991

British Council Grant

1992

Studied and worked at the British School at Rome

1992-2001

Personal Chair in Fine Art, University of Dundee

1996 – 2001

Member of the Faculty of Fine Art at the British School at Rome

1997

Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts

Elected Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture

1997-2001

Dean of the Faculty of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee

2000

Awarded the Chicago Prize 2000, John David Mooney Foundation

2001- 2011

Principal of Edinburgh College of Art

2001-2007

Chair, Dundee Cultural Developments Ltd.

2001-2010

Personal Chair Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

2005

Sir William Gillies Bequest Scholarship, Royal Scottish Academy

2007

Degree of Doctor honoris causa the University of Edinburgh

2008-2011

Treasurer of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture

2009-11

Honorary Vice-Principal of the University of Edinburgh

2011-14

Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland

2011-

Emeritus Professor of Art, University of Edinburgh

2017-

Trustee: Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture Foundation.

2.     EXHIBITIONS

2.1  SELECTED SOLO  EXHIBITIONS

1986

Anne Berthoud Gallery, London

1987

Ian Howard – Paintings, Prints and Related Works – Touring Exhibition.  Third-Eye Centre, Glasgow; Art-Space Galleries, Aberdeen; Seagate Gallery, Dundee; Talbot-Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh

1991

The Alchemist’s Dream – Touring Exhibition.  Fine Art Society, Glasgow; Fine Art Society, Edinburgh;  Gruzelier Modern & Contemporary Art, London

Galleri BKR, Rogaland Kunstnersenter, Norway

1992

Recent Works  Sutton House, London

1993

Arcane Knowledge  Artspace Gallery, Aberdeen

East West Gallery, London

1994

Compass Gallery, Glasgow

Works on Paper  Printworks, Chicago

Heretical Diagrams  Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen

Heretical Diagrams  Pier Art Centre, Orkney

1998

Emblemata  Francis Cooper Gallery, DJCAD

Emblemata  East West Gallery, London

Trondheim Kunstforening Trondheim Biennale, Norway

Cruciforms  Installation, Dubrovnik, Croatia

2000

Ian Howard – New Works on Paper, Printworks, Chicago

Uncertain Histories  John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago

2005

New Work  Printworks, Chicago

2006                          

New works on Paper  Printworks, Chicago

2008                          

Ian Howard  Open Eye, Edinburgh

2014

Goujounart  Goujounac, Lot, France : invited artist

2017

The Death of Magic, Academicians’ Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture

Double Diablerie, print installation and artists’ book, with Arthur Watson, Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture

2.2     SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1979

Recent Acquisitions  Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh

Cleveland Drawing Biennale  Middlesbrough, London and tour

1980

Five Artists 369 Gallery, Edinburgh

1981

Recent Purchases  Scottish Arts Council, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh

Grease and Water  Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition

1982

Five Scottish Artists  Third Eye Centre, Glasgow

1983

Four North-East Artists  Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen

1984

Scottish Print Open 3  touring exhibition

Contemporary Scottish Printmakers  Mercury Gallery, London

Contemporary Scottish Drawing  Fine Art Society, Edinburgh & Glasgow

Peacock 10  Aberdeen Art Gallery

1984-85

Sculptors’ Drawings  Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition

1985

Tolly-Cobbold Eastern Arts 5th National Exhibition  Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge;  Royal Academy, London; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

Scottish Prints  Warwick Arts Trust, London

1986

The Human Touch  Fischer Fine Art, London

Side by Side, British/Malaysian Exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, British Council Exhibition

1987

A Decade of Acquisitions  Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

Recent British Painting and Prints British Council Touring Exhibition, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong

Northern Lights – Contemporary Scottish Painting  Assembly Rooms, Norwich

Scottish Contemporary Art  Clare Hall, Cambridge

Royal Overseas League  Overseas House, London

1988

The Scottish Show  Welsh Arts Council Touring Show

Scottish Art in Yugoslavia  Richard Demarco Gallery Touring Exhibition in Yugoslavia

Metropolis, Raab Gallery  London

1990

From the Directors Chair  Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh

Recent Scottish Painting  Fine Art Society, Edinburgh & Glasgow

Guthrie Award Winners  Fine Art Society, Edinburgh & Glasgow

Jordanstone Folio a collaboration with poet Valerie Gillies, Duncan of Jordanstone

The Compass Contribution  Tramway, Glasgow

The Stevenson Collection  Warwick Arts Trust, London

Towards a New Decade  Fine Art Society, Glasgow/Edinburgh

Scottish Contemporary Painting  Lynne Sterne Associates, London.

Royal Society of Watercolour Painters Annual Exhibition – invited artist

1992

Art Now Whiteleys, London – invited artist, selected by Contemporary Art Society

Artists Abroad  Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

Modern Masters  City Art Centre, Edinburgh

Contemporary Icons  Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

1993

Scottish Painters  Flowers East, London

Scottish Artists  Gruzelier Modern & Contemporary Art, London

Margaret, a Saint for Scotland  Dunfermline Abbey

1994

Joseph Beuys in Scotland  Demarco Foundation

Ian Howard, Will Maclean and Ian McCulloch  Lamont Gallery, London

East West at Atlantis Gallery, London

1995

David Gilbert Gallery, Dorchester

Outpost  Venice Biennale.

Gathering  Galleri Beeldspraak, Amsterdam

1996

Scottish Print Open 5  Glasgow Print Studio and tour

Peacock 21  Aberdeen Art Gallery

1997

Small Works on Paper  Printworks, Chicago

Art Chicago 97  Navy Pier, Chicago

Modern Scottish Graphics  Galerija Loskega Museja, Skofia Loka  and tour

Litografiska Akademin  Tidaholm, Sweden

Celtic Connections  Iwate Festival, Japan

I Live Now  Academiegalerie, Utrecht.

Otok II  Dubrovnik, Croatia

2000

Marie R  Bourne Fine Art , Edinburgh

Expressions: Scottish Art 1976-1989  Aberdeen Art Gallery, Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Scottish Art  University of Central Florida.

2005

Works on Paper  Printworks, Chicago

2006

Small Works  Open Eye, Edinburgh

Artists Abroad  Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh

2010

Painters in Bronze Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Fleming Gallery, London

APUFAM Museum, Nagoya

2011

New Acquisitions  Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen

2012

Of Natural and Mystical Things  Royal Scottish Academy 

RSA 2012 Invited artist, Royal Scottish Academy

2015

RSA 2015 Invited artist, Royal Scottish Academy

2016

Double Diablerie Satellite Gallery, Nagoya

with Arthur Watson, Hisashi Kurachi, Sotaro Ide

Double Diablerie John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago

with Arthur Watson, Hisashi Kurachi, Sotaro Ide

2017

First The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

175 Years of Art The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

Ages of Wonder, Scotland’s Art 1540 to Now, Royal Sottish Academy.

2019

Miniaturists III The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

Our Infinite Land   Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

2020

Academicians in Isolation  Royal Sottish Academy, Edinburgh

2022

Assembled Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

3.      COMMISSIONED AND PUBLISHED WORK

1995

Commissioned by Random House, London/Vintage/ Salman Rushdie.Cover paintings for the novels Shame, Midnight’s Children.      

Suite of prints published by Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen entitled Heretical Diagrams. 20 images 30”x 40” in editions of 10.

Heretical Diagrams, book published with Peacock Printmakers in association with East West, London and Printworks, Chicago. ISBN 0 952 3608 2 9 with 20 colour pages and text by Alan Woods, Jane Lee and Arthur Watson.

Commissioned by Random House, London/ Vintage/ Salman Rushdie.Cover paintings for novels Grimus and The Satanic Verses.

1997

Emblemata, pulished by DJCAD, ISBN 1 899837 23 X with 10 colour plates and text by Murdo MacDonald and Kevin Henderson.

Commissioned by Henry Holt , New York/ Owl Books for cover paintings for two Salman Rushdie novels, Shame and The Satanic Verses, and the non- fiction book The Jaguar Smile.

Commissioned by Penguin Books for cover paintings for the novel  Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and the non-fiction work Imaginary Worlds, both by Salman Rushdie.

Commissioned by St. Martins Press, New York, cover paintings for The Satanic Verses and the non-fiction work The Jaguar Smile, both by Salman Rushdie.

2005

Commissioned by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, cover painting for Mitternachtskinder, Salman Rushdie.

          

4.         WORKS IN PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

 Aberdeen Art Gallery

Aberdeen Hospitals Art Project

Alloa  Museum

Art in Healthcare

Arts Council Collection

Arts in Fife

Contemporary Art Society

Clare College,  University of Cambridge

Co-Existence, London

Concert Hall, Stavanger, Norway

Dundee Art galleries and Museums

Edinburgh City Art Centre

Fife Regional Council

Friends of the Royal Scottish Academy

Fleming Collection, London

Glasgow College Collection

Grampian Hospital Trust

Highland Council

Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

Hunterian Art Gallery, Print Collection, University of Glasgow

Leicestershire  Council

Lothian Region Education Authority

McManus Art Gallery, Dundee

Paisley Art Gallery

Pearl Assurance PLC, London

Peterborough Council

Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen

Rosehaugh, London

Royal Collection Trust

Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture

Scottish Amicable

Shell UK

University of Dundee

University of Edinburgh

University of St Andrews

Unilever PLC

Victoria and Albert Museum

Warwick University Art Centre

5.         BIBLIOGRAPHY

5.1      BOOKS and PERIODICALS

Arts Council Collection: Acquisitions 1984-1988 (London 1988)

p.37 black & white illustration of Summa Theologiae

Hare, Bill   Contemporary Painting in Scotland (Craftsman House, Australia 1992)

pp.19, 98-101, colour illustration of Triad, black and white illustrations of Still Life #1, Capsula ex Rabbit

Griffiths, John  Art and Design Vol. 3 No 7/8 1987  

Post -Avant-Garde – Heroes and Dreamers- Scottish Figurative Art in the 80s

p.74-75 illustration of Staged

Griffiths, John  Art and Design  Vol. 4 No 3/4 1988

The New Modernism : Deconstructionist Tendencies in Art

p.55 colour illustration of Sparkles

Griffiths, John  Art and Design Vol. No 7/8 1988

Scottish Art Now

p. 41 illustration of Untitled

Movements in Contemporary Art

p.60

McEwan, Peter  Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture (1988)

p.284

MacDonald, Murdo  Scottish Art (Thames and Hudson, London 2000)

p.203

Macmillan, Duncan Scottish Art 1460-1990 (Edinburgh 1990)

p.360

Macmillan, Duncan Scottish Art in the 20th Century (Edinburgh 1995)

p 113, p 110 plate 117 colour illustration of Bell Jar II

Spalding, Frances  Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Art (London 1991)

p.252

Szulakowska, Uszula  Alchemy in Contemporary Art (Ashgate, UK 2011)

p. 154, 155, 156  Illustrations of Alchemia and Ritratto

5.2      BIBLIOGRAPHY – CATALOGUES

International Drawing Biennale – Cleveland (UK) 1979

text by Kenneth Martin

black and white illustration of Survival Machine I

  Four NE Artists – Peacock Printmakers 1983

text by Isobel Johnstone

colour illustrations of Pyramid/Tower and Telescope

Peacock 10 – Peacock Printmakers 1983

text by Clare Henry and Arthur Watson

colour illustration of Pit

Sculptors Drawings

Published by Scottish Arts Council 1985

ISBN 1-85119-001-5 text by James Bustard

black and white illustration of Two Excavated Pits

The Human Touch – Fischer Fine Art Ltd. London 1986

text by Mary Rose Beaumont

colour illustration Bell Jar

  Side by Side – The British Council, Nation Art Gallery, KL Malaysia 1986

text by Mary Rose Beaumont & Syed Ahmad Journal

colour illustration Vishu II

  Tolly-Cobbold Eastern Arts fifth National Exhibition

text by Professor Norbet Lynton 1985/86

colour illustration of Shiny (prizewinning work)

Ian Howard – Paintings, Prints and Related Works

Published by Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen and

Third-Eye Centre, Glasgow 1987

ISBN 0-906474 639 with text by Peter Hill

9 colour plates, 15 black and white illustrations

Royal Overseas League 1987

black and white illustration of Plain

  The Scottish Show – Oriel 31 and Welsh Arts Council 1988 ISBN 1 870797019

text by James Holloway and Duncan Macmillan

colour illustration of Bell Jar, black and white illustrations

of Towers, Temple, Vishnu

  The Compass Contribution, Compass Gallery 1990

text by Tessa Jackson, Cordelia Oliver, Douglas Hall,

Raymond Sless, Clare Henry, W. Gordon Smith

colour illustration of Triad, black and white illustration

of Bell Jar

  Peacock 21- Peacock Printmakers 1996

Text by Peter Lobban, Ian MacKenzie Smith, Alan Woods and Arthur Watson.

ISBN: 0 9523608 3 7

Colour illustrations of Drago Morto, Uccello, Investigazione. and Reliquary

Scottish Print Open 5 1996

colour illustration of Uccello

Iwate Festival 1998

Text by Martin Hopkinson, Andrew Patrizio, Keith Hartley, Mitsuro Mikami  illustration of Investigazione

I Live Now, Academiegalerie, Utrecht 1999

Text by Euan McArthur

Illustrations of Memento, Mellifico, Death of Magic.

Trondheim Biennale 1999

Colour illustration of Francesca

 Painters in bronze 2010

Colour illustrations of Annunciation and Cernunnos

RSA 2012

Invited artist, colour illustration of Vanitas

RSA 2015

Invited artist, colour illustration of Symmetry

RSA 2016

Colour illustration of HIVE

Studio International – October 2016,  Double Diablerie

Various colour illustrations

First, The Scottish Gallery 2017

Colour illustrations of Revelation and Draco

Witchcraft: The Library of Esoterica TASCHEN 2021

Colour illustration of Isobel Gowdie meets a devil