Ken Kiff Sequence 35, Walking (the dead father). 58x46cm, acrylic on paper. Ken’s father was killed in an air-raid accident in 1939 in the early days of WW2. This trauma deeply affected Ken who had been born in 1935. Amongst other consequences was the loss of their home, his mother could no longer afford their council house and the family had to lodge with relatives. He had anxiety attacks which were misdiagnosed as epilepsy, involving many trips to Great Ormond Street during the bombing of London. This is a relatively early painting in the Sequence and was started in July 1971 but not finished until January 1974 when he gave it the extra title ‘The dead father’. The factory in the painting is clearly related to that shown quite naturalistically in another Sequence painting that I love, number 109, ‘Factory and canal in a green atmosphere’. The lone figure on the bridge is easy to miss on this painting. I wonder if Sequence 109 is also connected to his father’s death. Interestingly the making of Sequence 109 overlapped with Sequence 35, as it was started in 1973 although not finished until 1984. #kenkiff #kunst

Ken Kiff - The Woodcut and the Dream. The Bill Brown Creative Workshop, Churchill College, Cambridge until 30th April. I had a great time at this show yesterday in which Barry Phipps looks in depth at nine of Kiff’s woodcuts. For several he demonstrates Kiff’s development of the imagery by hanging a print from the finished edition alongside a previously unseen early proof or variant. Barry also includes in the show a few of Kiff’s original woodblocks. Woodcutting was an important part of his day-to-day practise for the last 20 years of his life and he would often work on the blocks over many years. In the early years he would take the working proofs himself, sometimes with the help of his son, Sam or the artist Chris Appleby. In the first image I show extracts from two prints included in the show. The left is from an early proof of the Master of St Giles woodblock. This work came out of Kiff’s residency at the National Gallery and took as its inspiration the painting St Giles and the Deer (c1500). On the right is the same section of the final editioned print. You can see the numerous changes Kiff made as he developed the image, reworking the block and adjusting colours. With a painting these changes would often involve a razor or sandpaper to remove paint. With a carved woodblock he had the opposite problem which he records solving with wood-filler, which is probably how he removed the figure to the right of the tree on the early proof. The show also includes the painting, Talking to a Psychoanalyst - Night Sky, Sequence 113. This is visible in the second image with Barry talking in front of both the editioned and a trial proof of Tigress. To see the show DM Barry @barry__phipps #kenkiff #woodcutprint @halesgallery @anna_kiff @ken.kiff_estate @_paul_hedge_

Ken Kiff, Sequence 185, The Radiant Woman, 1984. 79x89cm. Acrylic on paper. This painting was started in March 1981 when Ken called it ‘Indian Landscape’. The reclining woman and the animal-like head were present but it originally had a red background. By the time it was finished in March 1984 it had gone through various transitions and had gained its present title. Although there are a small number of audio recordings of Ken Kiff talking I am only aware of one actual film of him. That was from a series of recordings of artists from the Whitechapel Gallery archive. Much of the recording is about Ken’s striving for wholeness in his paintings, he self-disparagingly referred to his Sequence as being ‘a kind of bundle of fragments which is a kind of a better stab at wholeness than I can make otherwise’. In the film he discusses this specific painting in an animated way saying that the colour has been developed so much that we are not only talking about bright colours but two sets of complementary’s, blue orange in the foreground and muted red green in the background. Also despite the painting being very tightly knit the elements are highly differentiated or individualised. He discussed the way in which these individual forms are helped to flow together. As an example he highlighted the coastline and its impact in bringing the coloured islands into a relationship with the blue head– using his hands as if he was physically moving the paint. The second image is a poor screen shot of him doing this. He also talked about the coloured islands being a rhyme with the woman and even the tree being very loosely a rhyme with the blue head. #kenkiff #modernekunst #britishpainting

Ken Kiff, Sequence 139, Conversation, acrylic on paper, 54.5x70cm. The beautiful show at Margate includes this painting from the Sequence. The Sequence took up much of his time in the mid to late 1970’s. It was a series of 200 paintings which Ken considered to be a single work and which he continued working on intermittently for the rest of his life. Conversation is not typical of the Sequence. Most show Kiff’s deliberate avoidance of naturalism and have a sense that the figuration emerges from the substance of painting. Conversation on the other hand looks pre-planned and has a cartoon-like quality. I think that in this way it has a lot in common with the next Sequence painting that he started: number 140, ‘The selection committee’s fear of the irrational’ which is also posted. The location of this is unknown and unfortunately the photo is not brilliant. Both paintings were started in May 1976. This was a time when Ken’s work was starting to be seen in a few shows but he had had no commercial success nor a gallery. The fame that he later found did not start to arrive until the 1980’s. In 1976 he had two young children and his main income was from part-time teaching at Chelsea. Sequence 140 probably reflects Ken’s frustration at the reception that his work often encountered and his exclusion from many group shows. In the light of this, Sequence 139 - Conversation, probably also has a deeper and more personal side. Looking at some of the characters in the painting it appears that Ken may be addressing and mocking the pompous and hierarchical nature of English society of the time which was driven by a well defined class system. His poor working class background resulted in him feeling an outsider. #kenkiff @carlfreedmangallery #contemporarypainting @ken.kiff_estate @robertdiament

Ken Kiff, Boat and Cave with Orange Tree, 1999, oil pastel and acrylic on board on canvas, 56x135cm. 2nd image Ken Kiff, Rainbow (2), 1999, Oil pastel and acrylic on paper mounted on canvas, 114x83.5cm. The Ken Kiff show at the @carlfreedmangallery in Margate opened last weekend. The paintings are beautifully framed and hung and given a huge amount of space to really let them breathe. The show has paintings from throughout Ken’s career but I noticed a focus on those from the 1990’s, some of the last work before his death in 2001. His paintings from this period often became sparer with areas that were either bare or less worked. Ken referred to what he called ‘the bareness of painting’ which became increasingly evident in the last years of his life. Andrew Lambirth discussed this in his Kiff monograph and he attributed it to Ken’s love of Chinese painting as well as the influence of Miró and Klee. Prior to this show I had only seen illustrations of these late paintings. The show includes several stunning examples such as the two in this post. Margate is the first opportunity for 20 years to see a group of Ken’s paintings from this period. The work in the show all comes from @ken.kiff_estate #kenkiff #carlfreedmangallery @robertdiament

Dignified Man in a London Suburb Passed by a Girl, Sequence 100, acrylic on paper, 68x54cm. I bought this painting at an auction in the mid 90’s. It was the result of determined encouragement by a friend, the painter Chris Appleby. Chris had often told me that Kiff was the real deal and talked about him as one of the greats. I wasn’t an easy convert as I hadn’t particularly liked the work I had seen up to that point. But I trusted Chris and decided I would really like to live with this to see what all the fuss was about.  The painting just got stronger and stronger as I saw it every day. I came to realise that Chris was right. It is one of the Sequence - 200 paintings that Ken considered one work and which comprised much of his output during the 70’s and early 80’s. Eventually I became obsessed with all of his work. I learnt that whatever I bought would only reveal itself slowly and would never burn out quickly. I never met Ken Kiff but enjoy learning about him. Ken came from a working-class background in East London. He had a tough and disrupted childhood after his father was killed in an air raid. His resultant anxiety attacks were mis-diagnosed as epilepsy. As an artist he had to fight hard to gain the recognition that he achieved. He didn’t fit in. During the 80’s and 90’s when he was in numerous shows, including a retrospective at the Serpentine and had 17 of his paintings shown at MOMA in New York, he still remained a marmite-like figure within the British art world. His work was actively disliked by a number of influential figures. Why was this? This question deserves a thesis but some of the antipathy must be related to his not giving a damn about fashion. He refused to compromise and did the work he believed in. Some paintings referred to psychoanalysis and his inner demons at a time when this sort of introspection was considered far from cool. This even led to open mockery. Related to this was Ken’s lack of machismo and his unfashionable fascination with the unconscious feminine side of a man which he explored in much of his work. #modernekunst #britishart #contemporarypainting #figurativeart #kenkiff #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo

Over the past few years I have grown to love Ken Kiff’s prints. Each of them is a stand-alone piece of work in which Ken exploits the particular characteristics of the process being used. They are never simply a version of a existing painting. His prints include approximately 35 editions of etchings (including drypoints, aquatints and mezzotints). The first was made with Nigel Oxley in the early 80’s but almost all the others are from the 90’s, made with either Mark Balakjian or Dorothea Wight of Studio Prints. The two on this post were both made with Mark. The top one, ‘Man Drawing at Entrance to a Cave’ (1995 - plate 18.5x59.5cm) is an etching and drypoint. The second ‘Rainbow II’ (1999 - plate 25.4x59cm) is an etching. I also attach some details from each print. During the past few months in isolation Ken’s daughter Anna allowed me to read some of his papers. I was struck by how fascinated Ken was during the 90’s with all forms of printing. He devoted a significant part of his time to making woodcuts with Jo Briggs and later Anthony Key, etchings and other intaglio prints with Dorothea and Mark, stone lithographs with Erik Holgersson in Sweden and Monotypes with Garner Tullis in the US. This was at a time when he was regularly under pressure to work on and complete more paintings for selling exhibitions. The decision to devote so much energy to print-making was clearly driven by a fascination with the potential of the various techniques. #kenkiff #etching #drypoint #contemporaryart #printmaking #britishprintmaking

We have temporarily rented a place in London while I have medical treatment. A plus is that we have brought some art with us to make the space feel like home. Re-hanging work always makes you see it afresh. This is a small group of Albert Herbert’s paintings in their original frames which seem to bounce off other now they have been hung together. They also made much more sense of the form of framing that Albert chose for the two outer paintings. They are all oil on board. The first is ‘In the Garden’ from 1997 (27x35cm), the second ‘Jonah and the Whale, Mary in the Stable’ 1991 (56x21cm) which I think is painted on an old floorboard and the third ‘Jonah and the Whale’ which I posted at the end of last year. The fourth image is an attempt to show them together. #modernekunst #britishart #contemporarypainting #figurativeart #albertherbert #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo #artemoderna #artefigurativo #moderneart

Ken Kiff, Gushing Stream, Sequence 130. probably started September 1975, acrylic on paper, 58x73cm. A few weeks ago I bought two letters by Ken Kiff from a book dealer in Bristol. They were written to Norbert Lynton. Norbert was a professor of art history at Sussex and wrote several books about contemporary art and artists. He was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Kiff’s work. One, dated 26th August 1975, was taking up Norbert’s offer to look at the wording of an application that Ken was making for some form of grant or award. He was hoping to use the money to free him up to spend more time on the Sequence. I attach photos of most of this letter in which he shares with Norbert his draft wording. This is not new information. But there is something special about seeing Ken’s handwriting describing his thoughts about the Sequence being a single work and the problems that he had getting people to understand this. When he wrote the letter Ken had started 129 Sequence paintings of which he said 80 to 100 were finished. He numbered them strictly chronologically based on when they were started. There were eventually some 200 paintings in the Sequence and they are very rarely dated. I thought that I would include in this post Gushing Stream. As it is number 130 it was the next Sequence painting that he started after he wrote the letter. I don’t think that this painting has ever been publicly shown. Ken’s daughter Anna kindly gave me permission to share these extracts from the letter. #modernekunst #britishart #contemporarypainting #figurativeart #kenkiff #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo #artemoderna #artefigurativo #moderneart

Stewart Geddes, Magnol, 90x120cm, acrylic on panel, 2017. Stewart delivered Magnol last week. I had seen it in Bristol before Covid and had been looking forward to seeing it again in real life. It was larger and even more beautiful than I remembered. I then had a great few hours with Stewart looking at and talking about Ken Kiff’s paintings. Spending time with Stewart and getting his thoughts about Kiff’s work left me feeling very refreshed and energised. It’s strange how despite knowing paintings so well, because you love them and see them almost every day, you can still seem to see them afresh when you are party to someone else’s reaction to them. For me that is particularly the case when that other person is a painter. #modernekunst #britishart #contemporarypainting #abstractart #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo #artemoderna #stewartgeddes #moderneart #acrylicpainting @stewart.geddes

Dr Dee on Bruno’s donkey. Oil and other media on panel, 2011, 92x76cm. I have been a fan of Chris’s work for ages (@appleby4555 ) Some of his work reflects his fascination with the changes in the 16th century which were a precursor to the Enlightenment. During this period scientists and thinkers used reason to make sense of the world in a way we still recognise. This painting references the British mathematician, astronomer and occultist Dr Dee and the Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno. Amongst many radical ideas, Bruno believed in the infinity of the universe and multiple worlds. His adherence to his beliefs ultimately led to his being burnt at the stake in Italy. Bruno used the ass as a motif to attack the asinine thinking of established theology. John Dee did not suffer the same fate as Bruno but in his colourful life he went from being the court astronomer and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I to a death in poverty. In Chris’s painting John Dee is riding the establishment/people causing them to be led by free thought and ideas, as personified by Epinoia. #modernekunst #britishart #contemporarypainting #figurativeart #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo #artemoderna #artefigurativo #moderneart #chrisappleby #epinoia #gnostic #johndee

Ken Kiff, Green Fish, Woman Rowing, Man Climbing Steps, 1988, monotype, 216x107cm. This massive monoprint has just arrived. As you can see from the second image I haven’t yet worked out exactly how it is to be hung but there will eventually be a big enough space above the stairs. I hadn’t taken delivery before because I wanted to re-hang other things first but as I am heading into hospital for a long stay in the summer I wanted to get to know it better before I go into isolation. It is one of the pieces that Ken did with Richard and Garner Tullis in Santa Barbara on the Tullis’ giant press. It was Ken’s first trip to work with Garner and his son Richard. Ken started the visit by making some smaller prints on a similar scale to those Richard Diebenkorn had just been making with Garner and Richard. Ken wasn’t that happy with many of these smaller pieces and he has described how Garner Tullis pushed him to work on a 7x4 foot aluminium plate. Ken describes in Andrew Lambirth’s book how he worked with a huge brush and had to complete each image in about an hour and a half otherwise the oil would start to harden. Ken was notoriously slow at finishing work, often taking years, so this way of working must have been quite a shock to him. Yet he obviously liked it, because he made four further trips to the US to work with Garner Tullis in New York and another was being planned when Ken fell ill. Some of the work from Ken’s first trip to work with Garner and Richard was shown at Pamela Auchincloss’s gallery in New York in early 1990. I recently bought the catalogue for this show and copies are still available very cheaply on eBay. #modernekunst #britishart #contemporarypainting #figurativeart #kenkiff #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo #artemoderna #artefigurativo #moderneart #monotype #garnertullis #garnertullisworkshop #experimentalprintmaking @ppauch11