Ian McKenzie-Smith, RSA, RGI, was born in Montrose, Scotland in 1935. He studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and at Hospitalfield in Arbroath from 1953 to 1958. After a period of teaching he became Director of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums in 1968.
His work is mainly abstract painting, and was in his early career influenced by the Danish, Dutch and Belgian artists of the COBRA group that were active in the late 1940s and 1950s. He was granted a travelling scholarship in 1959, which took him to Paris where he met the Japanese artist, Kenzo Okada, and first encountered Zen philosophy, which would influence his practice ahead.
McKenzie-Smith has been involved with a number of professional arts organisations, and he served as President of the RSA between 1998-2007.
