Norman Ackroyd

Ackroyd was born on 26 March 1938 in Leeds, Yorkshire.{{Citation

| title = Birthdays | newspaper = The Guardian | pages = 37 | date = 26 March 2014}} His father was Albert Ackroyd, a butcher, and his mother Clara Ackroyd (née Briggs) was a weaver.{{Cite web |last=Gillman |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Gillman |date=25 September 2024 |title=Norman Ackroyd obituary {{!}} Art {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/25/norman-ackroyd-obituary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926161033/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/25/norman-ackroyd-obituary |archive-date=26 September 2024 |access-date=26 September 2024 |website=The Guardian}} He attended Cockburn High School, then Leeds College of Art from 1957 to 1961 and the Royal College of Art, London, from 1961 to 1964,{{cite web |title=Norman Ackroyd - Artist - Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/norman-ackroyd-ra |website=Royal Academy |access-date=17 September 2024}} where he studied under Julian Trevelyan and met his future wife, the artist Sylvia Buckland, alongside David Hockney, Mary Quant and Zandra Rhodes. Subsequently, he lived for several years in the United States. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Art in 1988 as an associate, then a Royal Academician in 1991, and appointed Professor of Etching, University of the Arts, in 1994. He was elected Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 2000, and in the 2007 New Year Honours was appointed CBE for services to Engraving and Printing.United Kingdom: {{London Gazette |issue=58196 |date=30 December 2006 |pages=1–28 |supp=1 }}

In the 1980s Ackroyd emerged as a landscape artist. Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design mounted a retrospective exhibition of these works in 2006 and kept an archive of his work. His works range from minimalist, nearly abstract impressions, to detailed images. His work almost never includes the human figure, the landscape subjects are often of old human habitation. His prints range from tiny etchings intended to be bound into books to huge etchings. His preferred medium for working directly on paper was watercolour, including a project pairing his watercolours with poems by Kevin Crossley-Holland published under the title Moored Man. He designed a number of large-scale, etched reliefs in steel or bronze commissioned for architectural projects in London, Cambridge, and Moscow.{{cite journal |last1=Emison |first1=Patricia |title=Norman Ackroyd's Collectors |journal=Art in Print |date=2017 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=28–31 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26408787}} Other completed projects include a mural at the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University, showing scenes from the Galapagos, and a door at Great Portland Estates in London, W1.

In 2009, with poet Douglas Dunn, he published A Line in the Water.{{cite news |last1=Reilly |first1=Samuel |title=An interview with Norman Ackroyd - Apollo Magazine |url=https://www.apollo-magazine.com/norman-ackroyd-interview/ |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Apollo Magazine |date=20 December 2018}} Ackroyd's working methods are described in an issue of Archipelago (No. III, Spring 2009).

Ackroyd's work can be found in several British and American galleries including Eames Fine Art, the Zillah Bell Gallery (which holds the largest collection of his work in the North of England), the Tate, the British Museum, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.{{cite web |title=Norman Ackroyd born 1938 - Tate |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/norman-ackroyd-625 |website=Tate Britain |access-date=17 September 2024}}{{cite web |title=Norman Ackroyd Landscape, 1973 |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.73158.html |website=National Gallery of Art |access-date=17 September 2024}}{{cite web |title=Norman Ackroyd - British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG16841 |website=British Museum |access-date=17 September 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Miers |first1=Mary |title=Norman Ackroyd at Eames Fine Art Gallery, London |url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/luxury/art-and-antiques/norman-ackroyd-at-eames-fine-art-gallery-london-75687 |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Country Life |date=6 September 2015}}{{cite web |title=Norman Ackroyd CBE RA |url=https://www.zillahbellgallery.co.uk/collections/norman-ackroyd-cbe-ra |website=Zillah Bell |access-date=17 September 2024}} He has been in several television programmes, including BBC documentaries in 1980, 2006, and What Do Artists Do All Day? (2013).{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rd35q|title=What Do Artists Do All Day?: Norman Ackroyd (episode 1 of 3)|publisher=BBC|date=19 March 2013|accessdate=23 March 2013}} In September 2024 he was interviewed by Michael Berkeley on Radio 3's programme Private Passions.{{cite news |title=BBC Radio 3 - Private Passions, Norman Ackroyd |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lzfh |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=BBC |date=8 September 2024}}

Ackroyd had four children; three daughters and a son. His daughter Poppy is a composer and musician. Ackroyd died in Bermondsey on 16 September 2024, at the age of 86.{{cite news |title=Norman Ackroyd obituary: energetic Yorkshire born and bred artist |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/norman-ackroyd-obituary-energetic-yorkshire-born-and-bred-artist-nd655fzx9 |access-date=18 September 2024 |publisher=The Times |date=18 September 2024}}

• {{Cite book|last=Ackroyd|first=Norman|title=The Stratton Street series|publisher=Categorical Books|year=2003|location=Herne Bay|pages=88pp|isbn=9781904662020}}
• {{cite book |last1=Crossley-Holland |first1=Kevin |last2=Ackroyd |first2=Norman |author1-link=Kevin Crossley-Holland |title=Moored Man: Poems of North Norfolk |date=2006 |publisher=Enitharmon Press |isbn=9781904634539}}
• {{Cite book|last=Ackroyd|first=Norman|last2=Dunn|first2=Douglas|author2-link=Douglas Dunn|title=A Line in the Water|location=London|publisher=Royal Academy of Arts|year=2009|pages=159|ISBN=9781903973684}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wyatt |first1=John |last2=Ackroyd |first2=Norman |author1-link=John Wyatt (writer)|title=The Shining Levels |date=2012 |publisher=Little Toller Books |isbn=9781908213037}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Norman |last2=Devaney |first2=Edith |title=Summer Exhibition Illustrated 2013 |date=2013 |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts |isbn=9781907533433}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Norman |title=A Shetland Notebook |date=2014 |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts, London |isbn=9781907533891}}{{cite news |last1=Kirkwood |first1=Holly |title=Book review: Norman Ackroyd: A Shetland Notebook |url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/luxury/art-and-antiques/book-review-norman-ackroyd-shetland-notebook-59953 |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Country Life |date=10 August 2014}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Norman |title=A Hebridean Notebook |date=2015 |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts |isbn=9781910350355}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Norman |title=The Furthest Lands |date=2018 |publisher=Yorkshire Sculpture Park |isbn=9781908432438}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Norman |title=An Irish Notebook |date=2022 |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts |isbn=9781912520619 |pages=96}}

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• {{Official website}}

Artist profiles

• [https://www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk/professor-norman-ackroyd-cbe/ View] at City & Guilds of London Art School
• [https://www.moma.org/artists/55 View] at MoMA
• [https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/norman-ackroyd-625 View] at Tate
• [https://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/ackroyd-norman-1938 View] at the British Council
• [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG16841 View] at the British Museum
• [https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/norman-ackroyd-ra View] at the Royal Academy of Arts
• [https://www.re-printmakers.com/member-information/norman-ackroyd-ra-hon-re/ View] at the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers
• Portraits of [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp59990/norman-ackroyd Norman Ackroyd] at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Artist studio

• [https://www.pressingmattersmag.com/norman-ackroyd-studio-visit Featured] in Pressing Matters
• [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/nov/22/norman-ackroyd-studio Featured] in The Guardian
• [https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/norman-ackroyd-studio-bermondsey-street-london Featured] in The World of Interiors

Artwork

• {{Art UK bio}}
• [https://www.moma.org/artists/55#works View All Artworks] and [https://www.moma.org/artists/55 View Profile] at the Museum of Modern Art

Interviews

• [https://www.goldmarkart.com/blogs/discover/at-home-with-norman-ackroyd 2024 Interview] with Goldmark Gallery

Obituaries

• [https://artlyst.com/people/norman-ackroyd-ra-master-printmaker-has-died-aged-86/ Read] at Artlyst
• [https://www.printweek.com/content/news/royal-academy-printmaker-norman-ackroyd-dies Read] at PrintWeek
• [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/sep/25/norman-ackroyd-obituary Read] at The Guardian
• [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/09/18/norman-ackroyd-etcher-magic-of-british-isles-died-obituary/ Read] at The Telegraph
• [https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/norman-ackroyd-obituary-energetic-yorkshire-born-and-bred-artist-nd655fzx9 Read] at The Times
• [https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/norman-ackroyd-obituary Read] at The World of Interiors

Other profiles

• {{IMDb name|2702567}}
• {{discogs artist|Norman Ackroyd}}

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Category:1938 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:Royal Academicians

Category:English printmakers

Category:Artists from Leeds

Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Alumni of Leeds Arts University