Idris Khan

Khan is a Muslim by origin. His father is from Pakistan{{cite news|url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/idris-khan-at-yvon-lambert-4-14-11.asp|title=Idris Khan: Gof is Great|accessdate=29 March 2013|work=artnet}} and his English mother converted to Islam after meeting his father.

Khan graduated in photography from the University of Derby in 2001, he studied for an MA at the Royal College of Art in 2004.[http://www.iniva.org/library/archive/people/k/khan_idris www.iniva.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808231444/http://iniva.org/library/archive/people/k/khan_idris |date=8 August 2016 }} Idris Khan

Khan's photographs or scans originate from secondary source material – for instance, every page of the Qur'an, every Beethoven sonata, every William Turner postcard from Tate Britain, or every Bernd and Hilla Becher spherical gasholder.[http://weweremodern.blogspot.com/2009/09/place-of-historical-archaeology.html Dan Hicks and Mary C. Beaudry 2006] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708072501/http://weweremodern.blogspot.com/2009/09/place-of-historical-archaeology.html |date=8 July 2011 }}. Introduction: the place of historical archaeology. In Dan Hicks and Mary C. Beaudry (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 8–9 Khan's interest in Islam and layered imagery can be traced back to his upbringing: It was his father's idea that Khan – himself a non-practicing Muslim – photograph every page of the Qur'an.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/sep/02/art |title=The Guardian, Between the lines, Geoff Dyer}}{{cite news|url=http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/a-pilgrimage-of-self-discovery-idris-khan-the-devils-wall-whitworth-art-gallery-manchester/|title=Aesthetica, A Pilgrimage of Self-Discovery, Idris Khan: The Devil's Wall, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, Carol Huston}} His work and process have been described as "experiments in compressed memories"{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/mar/25/artist-idris-khan|title=Artist of the week 80: Idris Khan | first = Skye | last = Sherwin | date = 25 March 2010 | work = The Guardian | accessdate = 2 September 2016}} and "all-encompassing composites."{{cite news |title=Idris Khan's multi-layered photos, Photo Slaves, Sep 28, 2009 |url=http://photoslaves.com/idris-khan%E2%80%99s-multi-layered-photos/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704025916/http://photoslaves.com/idris-khan%E2%80%99s-multi-layered-photos/ |archive-date=4 July 2013}} As Khan describes: "It is a challenge to not define my work as a photograph but using the medium of photography to create something that exists on the surface of the paper and not to be transported back to an isolated moment in time." He takes inspiration from Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and made a ballet with Wayne McGregor and Max Richter.{{Cite web |last=Amadour |date=2022-10-01 |title=An Interview with Idris Khan |url=https://www.riotmaterial.com/interview-with-idris-khan/ |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=Riot Material |language=en-US}}

Khan's visual layering also occurs in his videos, such as Last Three Piano Sonatas…after Franz Schubert, a three-channel video installation wherein he uses multiple camera angles to capture numerous performances of Schubert's last sonatas, composed on his deathbed.{{cite news|url=http://ccac.inspiringapps.com/event/?e=544|title=Idris Khan: Last 3 Piano Sonatas . . . after Franz Schubert|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202134257/http://ccac.inspiringapps.com/event/?e=544|archive-date=2 February 2014}}

In 2012, Khan was commissioned by the British Museum in London to create a new wall drawing for the exhibition, Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam. In addition to the wall drawing, a sculpture was installed in the museum's Great Court.{{cite news|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/past_exhibitions/2012/hajj.aspx|title=Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at The British Museum}} Also in 2012, The New York Times Magazine commissioned Khan to create a new body of work that was published in their London issue,{{cite news|url=http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/this-sunday-london-in-pictures/|title=This Sunday: London in Pictures, The 6th Floor Blog, Kathy Ryan, March 3, 2012] | work=The New York Times | date=3 March 2012}} focusing on iconic sites.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/01/magazine/idris-khan-london.html?_r=0|title=Pretty as a Thousand Postcards, The New York Times Magazine online, March 1, 2012] | date=1 March 2012}}

In 2016, Khan was commissioned to build a {{convert|42000|m2|sqft|abbr=on}} memorial to the war dead of the United Arab Emirates. The sculpture is constructed from seven aluminium-encased steel tablets, cast with poems by emirs of the UAE.Rachel Spence (7 February 2020), [https://www.ft.com/content/8ace2e80-467a-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d Idris Khan on his spiritual heritage and the power of colour] Financial Times.

Khan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to art.{{London Gazette|issue=61962|supp=y|page=B12|date=17 June 2017}}

Khan works from a studio in Stoke Newington, London he shares with his wife, the British artist Annie Morris.{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/idris-khan-on-his-politically-infused-show-at-the-victoria-miro-gallery-during-frieze-a3648756.html|title=Idris Khan on his politically infused Frieze show and how he 'fell into art'|accessdate=5 October 2017|work=ES Magazine, London Evening Standard}} They have two children.

• Still Revolution: Suspended in Time, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, May–June 2009. Group exhibition with Khan, Barbara Astman, Walead Beshty, Mat Collishaw, Stan Douglas, Trevor Paglen, Martha Rosler, and Mikhael Subotzky.{{cite web | url = http://museumofcontemporaryart.ca/still-revolution-suspended-in-time/ | date = 28 April 2009 | accessdate = 2 September 2016 | publisher = Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art | title = Still Revolution: Suspended in Time}}
• K20 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Solo exhibition.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Göteborgs Konsthall, Sweden. Solo exhibition.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Taidehalli in Helsinki{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Photographic Dialogues between Past, Present and Future, Musée de l'Élysée, Switzerland, 2016. Group exhibition.{{Cite web|url=http://www.elysee.ch/en/exhibitions-and-events/expositions/the-memory-of-the-future/|title=Musée de l'Elysée: The Memory of the Future|date=26 October 2021 }}
• Conflicting Lines, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, 2015. Solo exhibition.
• Saatchi Gallery in London[http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/idris_khan.htm Saatchi Gallery] Biography: Idris Khan

Khan's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Saatchi Collection, London{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York{{cite web

|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/21637

|title=Idris Khan, Homage to Bernd Becher

|date=2 February 2007

|website=Guggenheim Museum

|quote= Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with funds contributed by the Photography Committee, 2007

|access-date=1 November 2017}}

• Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• de young, San Francisco, CA{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.skny.com/artists/idris-khan/ Idris Khan at Sean Kelly Gallery]
• [https://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/14-idris-khan/ Idris Khan at Victoria Miro Gallery]
• [https://www.galeriethomasschulte.de/artist/idris-khan/ Idris Khan at Thomas Schulte]
• [http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/43192 Idris Khan on ArtFacts.net]
• [http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/idris_khan.htm Idris Khan – Photography – Saatchi Gallery]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120125031210/http://www.yvon-lambert.com/idris_khan-A34.html Yvon Lambert – Idris Khan]

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Category:1978 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the University of Derby

Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art

Category:British contemporary artists

Category:British artists of Pakistani descent

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:English male sculptors

Category:21st-century British sculptors

Category:Sculptors from London

Category:Photographers from Birmingham, West Midlands