Stephen McKenna (artist)
{{short description|English painter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Stephen McKenna
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1939|3|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = Ashford, Middlesex, England, U.K.
| death_date = {{death date and given age|2017|5|4|78|df=y}}
| death_place = County Carlow, Ireland
| other_names = SMCK
| occupation = Visual artist
| years_active =
| known_for = Postmodern, figurative painting
| notable_works = Tate, British Council, Imperial War Museum
}}
Stephen McKenna (sometimes signed as SMCK) (20 March 1939 – 4 May 2017) was a British-born visual artist known for his postmodern figurative paintings. He was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1986. His works can be seen in the collections of the Tate Galleries,{{cite web|title=Stephen McKenna|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/stephen-mckenna-2194|work=Tate|accessdate=28 January 2014}} the British Council,{{cite web|title=Stephen McKenna|url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/artist/artist/30783/18452|work=British Council|access-date=28 January 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203033512/http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/artist/artist/30783/18452|archive-date=3 February 2014|df=dmy-all}} the Imperial War Museum, London,{{cite web|title=City of Derry I by Stephen McKenna|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/city-of-derry-i-6099|work=Art UK|accessdate=28 January 2014}} and has been shown at various galleries including the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin{{cite news|last=Leach|first=Cristin|title=Art: Stephen McKenna|url=http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/article149182.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202114238/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/article149182.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 February 2014|accessdate=28 January 2014|newspaper=Sunday Times|date=25 September 2005}} and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He was a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy.{{cite web|title=Stephen McKenna PPRHA|url=http://www.rhagallery.ie/about/members/academy-member-9/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203024945/http://www.rhagallery.ie/about/members/academy-member-9/|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 February 2014|work=Royal Hibernian Academy|access-date=28 January 2014}}{{cite web|title=Stephen McKenna|url=http://www.kerlin.ie/artists/stephen-mckenna/selected-works|work=Kerlin Gallery|accessdate=28 January 2014}}
Life
McKenna was born in London, he studied there at Slade School of Art (affiliated to the University College London). In 1973 he moved to Donegal, Ireland. He also lived in Belgium, Germany, and Italy. He was a guest professor at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (Brunswick, Germany) from 1995 to 1996.{{cite web|title=Stephen McKenna|url=http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Visual-Arts/McKenna.aspx|work=Irish Arts Council|accessdate=28 January 2014}} In 1997 he curated the exhibition The Pursuit of Painting at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He became an associate member of the RHA in 2001 and a full member in 2002 and was the president of this association from 2005 till 2009.
He died in his home in County Carlow on 4 May 2017.{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/painter-stephen-mckenna-dies-at-home-in-co-carlow-1.3073329|title=Painter Stephen McKenna dies at home in Co Carlow|last=Dunne|first=Aidan|date=5 May 2017|newspaper=The Irish Times|accessdate=14 May 2017}}
Notable works
O, Ilium! (1982) is an example of postmodern pastiche, combining imagery from classical art and sculpture, Max Ernst, Constantin Brâncuși, and archaic Greek pottery. According to an Ingeborg Hoesterey, it throws together images from the cultural memory of western civilisation, showing them to constitute only a "wasteland".{{cite book|last=Hoesterey|first=Ingeborg|title=Pastiche: Cultural Memory in Art, Film, Literature|year=2001|publisher=Indiana University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pastichecultural00hoes/page/19 19]–21|url=https://archive.org/details/pastichecultural00hoes|url-access=registration|quote=Stephen McKenna artist.}}
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions of his work include:
- Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1983)
- Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1983)
- Stephen McKenna Paintings 1985–1993, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (1993)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.kerlingallery.com/artists/stephen-mckenna#selected-works Represented by Kerlin Gallery, Dublin]
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Category:20th-century English painters
Category:21st-century English painters
Category:People from Ashford, Surrey