Ian Fraser ARCA (1933 - 1986)

Ian Fraser was a remarkable artist passionate about ecological sustainability and regeneration, almost prophetically aware that these issues would become spotlit and political in the 21st Century.

Fraser's work, across mediums, consistently returns to these issues and a search for calm and tranquility in world that, in the 1970s and 80s, was becoming hectic and over industrialised.

Formally educated in print from the Royal College of Art, Fraser held a prominent position in education lecturing at Camberwell before joining Hornsey College of Art (later Middlesex Polytechinic and then Middlesex University) in the mid 1960s. He was appointed course head for Fine Art of Middlesex Polytechnic in 1983 and held the position until his death at the end of 1986.

Professor Peter Green writes in his obituary for Ian in the North Circular (1987), "..few perhaps realised the extent of his contribution to Fine Art education, not only within the polytechnic but also nationally... He was, in addition to being a gifted artist, an equally committed and talented teacher..." Richard Robbins, Principal Lecturer in painting at Quicksilver Place at the time of Fraser's death, goes on to to say of Fraser's painting at the time "His work as an artist was known widely in this country... however his latest work has been seen by few... there is the lyrical abstracted beauty contained in works around what he called 'the tranquil garden', and... abstracts with their subtle resolution so like music in the directeness of their appeal to the emotions and engagement of the intellect." [North Circular, 1987]