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Alison McKenzie

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Alison McKenzie
Born(1907-08-30)30 August 1907
Bombay, British Raj
(now India)
DiedAugust 5, 1982(1982-08-05) (aged 74)
St Andrews, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Education
Known forPainting and printmaking

Alison McKenzie (30 August 1907 – 5 August 1982) was a British artist who was both a painter and printmaker.[1][2][3]

Biography

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McKenzie was born in Bombay to Scottish parents and was educated in England at the Prior's Field School from 1921 to 1925.[4] She studied at the Glasgow School of Art for four years, during which time she won the Fra Newbery medal, before moving to London in 1929 to learn wood engraving at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art under Iain Macnab.[5][6] McKenzie undertook several commercial commissions, including producing poster designs for the London and North Eastern Railway.[7] In 1937 McKenzie illustrated an edition of John Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity for the Gregynog Press.[4] McKenzie's sister, Winifred, was also an artist and during World War II they moved to St Andrews in Scotland.[4] At St Andrews, along with Annabel Kidston, they organised drawing and engraving classes for the Allied troops, many from Poland, stationed there.[4][8]

After World War II, McKenzie joined the staff of the Dundee College of Art on a part-time basis to teach life drawing and to help her sister establish the college's printmaking department.[6][3] She retired from the college in 1958 to care for her elderly mother but continued to paint and exhibit.[9] She painted in oil and gouache and produced many prints, often in a Cubist style with a palette of greys, ochre and black.[5] McKenzie regularly exhibited with the Royal Scottish Academy, the Scottish Society of Women Artists and with the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society.[6] The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and other Scottish galleries hold examples of her prints and paintings.[7][9] The two sisters held a number of joint exhibitions including one at the Cork Street Gallery in London and another at the English Speaking Union in Edinburgh.[6]

References

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  1. ^ The Dictionary of Scottish Painters. 1600 to the present. Paul Harris and Julian Halsby. Canongate Publishing. 1990.
  2. ^ Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Peter J. M. McEwan. Antique Collectors Club. 1994.
  3. ^ a b Robin Garton (1992). British Printmakers 1855-1955 A Century of Printmaking from the Etching Revival to St Ives. Garton & Co / Scolar Press. ISBN 0-85967-968-3.
  4. ^ a b c d Alan Horne (1994). The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-1082.
  5. ^ a b Paul Harris & Julian Halsby (1990). The Dictionary of Scottish Painters 1600 to the Present. Canongate. ISBN 1-84195-150-1.
  6. ^ a b c d David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 2, M to Z. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0-953260-95-X.
  7. ^ a b "Alison McKenzie (1907-1982)". National Galleries Scotland. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  8. ^ Patricia R. Andrew (2014). Chism In Time Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century. Birlinn Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78027-190-3.
  9. ^ a b "The McKenzie Sisters". University of Dundee. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
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