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Here comes the Sun King
JAN WOOLF revels in a painter of the poetic, whose freshness emulates that of the very young
(L) Ken Kiff, The Poet (Mayakovsky), 1977; (R) Open book and empty cup, 1999
[© Estate of Ken Kiff - Courtesy John Talbot/© The Estate of Ken Kiff - Courtesy of Three Highgate]
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Ken Kiff – A Hundred Suns
Three Highgate, London
WALK up the hill from Archway Tube, north London — or down from Highgate — and find the gallery Three Highgate, and the current incredible show of the late British painter Ken Kiff (1935-2001).
Born in Dagenham, east London, Kiff later studied at Hornsey School of Art, just a mile down the road. He was always his own man — linking the inner world with the outer. Don’t all artists do that? Not like this. Note “the” and not “his,” as there is something universal about his work. His “constellation of mental activity” speaks to all.
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This is poetry in paint, spectacular but never spectacle for its own sake, writes JAN WOOLF