Norman Ackroyd, RA, one of Britain’s leading landscape artists and master printmakers, died on 16 September, 2024, at the age of 86. He is known for his atmospheric etchings and watercolours that detail the beauty and mystery of the British Isles and beyond. He often captured remote and rugged landscapes, utterly untouched by modern life. While minimalist in nature, they are deeply evocative. His art has left a lasting legacy in contemporary British art.
Born in Leeds in 1938, Ackroyd developed a love for art early on. Ackroyd studied at Leeds College of Art from 1956 to 1961, and subsequently at the Royal College of Art, London from 1961 to 1964, where he mastered etching- a medium defining much of his career. Throughout his decades-long career, he was recognised for his ability to evoke a place’s mood with just a few deft strokes. The range of his prints, from the more diminutive and intimate to larger-scale etchings, treated viewers to a similar sense of quiet contemplation and attachment to the land.
During the 1980s, Ackroyd emerged as one of his generation’s key landscape artists. His often figureless paintings dealt with the natural world and the remains of long-past human life. Very rarely has an artist captured atmosphere: the remoteness of islands, the turbulence of coasts, and craggy cliffs, often fusing the real with the abstract. His landscapes were places where nature and history seemed to converge.
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design mounted a retrospective of his landscape works in 2006, the best possible tribute to an artist who had spent a lifetime capturing the subtlety of the British landscape. More than representations of nature, the etchings and watercolours were deliberations on time, memory, and solitude.
Ackroyd’s versatility extended beyond traditional paper media: he designed large-scale etched reliefs in steel and bronze and commissioned for architectural projects in London, Cambridge, and Moscow. His work at the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge University, depicting scenes from the Galapagos, is one of many examples of how he combined artistic vision with public spaces.
In addition to his work with architects, Ackroyd also collaborated with poets. Combining his watercolours with Kevin Crossley-Holland’s poetry in the Moored Man series and his book A Line in the Water with poet Douglas Dunn, he considered how words and images could combine to make new meanings.
During his lifetime, Ackroyd exhibited in many major institutions, such as the Tate, the British Museum, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Most of his work was held in the collections of Eames Fine Art in London and the Zillah Bell Gallery in Thirsk, with the latter having the most extensive collection of his etchings north of the North of England.
Ackroyd was no stranger to media. Several BBC documentaries gave a rare insight into his work, including 2013’s What Do Artists Do All Day? His great love for music and art combined in what would be his last interview, broadcast this September on BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions, discussing what influenced him.
Norman Ackroyd’s death marks the end of an illustrious career. His work will continue to inspire successive generations. His natural and imagined landscapes allow the viewer to enter a quieter, more contemplative world in which nature reigns.
Norman Ackroyd RA (1938–2024) Top Photo: Paul Carter Robinson © Artlyst 2024