Independent 20th Century | Booth B2: Ken Kiff

Hales is proud to exhibit a solo presentation of works by major British artist, Ken Kiff (b. 1935, Dagenham, Essex — d. 2001, London, UK). Expanding on his recent solo show at Hales London, the presentation focuses on Kiff’s time as Associate Artist in Residence at the National Gallery, London, between 1991-1993.  

The presentation at Independent centers around a significant body of work, which began during his residency at the National Gallery in London, where Kiff looked to historic works in the collection. He was the second artist to hold the position, following Paula Rego. For two years, he had a studio in the National Gallery with access to the collection day and night, an experience that greatly impacted his practice. Kiff’s approach to looking at the paintings in the National Gallery was deeply personal and intense. Rather than copying works in their entirety, he was ‘in search of what for him is its essence, not needing to re-present the whole, let alone retell its story.’1 Kiff looked at Rubens, Rembrandt, Pisanello, Patinir, Bellini, Domenichino, and was particularly enthralled by Van Gogh and Monet.  

During his time at the National Gallery, he made numerous drawings, notebook sketches, charcoals, monoprints and etchings, as well as starting fifty paintings. Reflective of his wider methodology and practice, he continued to work on the paintings for many years after, revisiting the richness of ideas around imagery, material and color, and created new works inspired by the residency. Included in the presentation at Independent is a major work, the National Gallery Triptych (1993), the fourth and final triptych Kiff would make, which was initially exhibited unfinished in Ken Kiff at the National Gallery (1993). This important piece was begun during the residency and is a coming together of key themes and a meditation on compositional elements in earlier triptychs.  

Primarily a painter, Kiff pursued the formal qualities of painting—of shape, line, texture, transparency and color. His practice was driven by an exploration of the material and emotional properties of color, viewing color as image, and image as color. In the 1980s his practice expanded to include most forms of printmaking—including woodcuts, monotypes, lithographs and etchings—collaborating with master printmakers across the UK, Europe and the US. Kiff would often work on paintings over a number of years, so the immediacy and materiality of printmaking allowed for a different kind of expressive freedom. A Catalogue Raisonne dedicated to Kiff’s prints will be published by Thames and Hudson in March 2026.  

Kiff trained at the Hornsey School of Art (1955-61) and went on to teach at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art, where over thirty years he influenced generations of artists. Kiff gained prominence in the 1980s and he was elected Royal Academician in 1991. Kiff exhibited and travelled throughout the United States from the 1980s onwards—he was included in New Work on Paper I, curated by John Elderfield, at the Museum of Modern Art, NY in 1981 and in the same year he visited Yale University to teach. Between 1988 – 1999 he regularly made monotypes and encaustic paintings at Garner Tullis’ printmaking studios in Santa Barbara and New York. Although recognized during his lifetime, he carved a solitary path, maintaining a commitment to the pictorial and symbolic values of modernism at a time when Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art dominated. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in his work in the context of contemporary figurative painting, with many younger artists turning to Kiff’s work for inspiration.   

Kiff’s work is held in collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, USA; The Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA; Yale Center for British Art, CT; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, USA; The British Museum, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Tate Britain, London, UK; Arts Council England, UK; Victoria and Albert Museum, and many others.   

Kiff had important solo exhibitions at Talbot Rice Art Centre, Edinburgh (1981), Serpentine Gallery, London (1986) and Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (1986). He was included in the artist and curator Timothy Hyman’s seminal touring exhibition Narrative Paintings in 1979. Recently The Sequence, an epic body of 200 works made between 1971-2001, was the focus of a major solo exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (2018-2019).