Ian Fleming RSA RSW

Born in Glasgow, Ian Fleming RSA RSW (1906-1994) was a painter, printmaker and teacher, and is one of Scotland’s most important twentieth century etchers.

He studied at Glasgow School of Art (1924-29), specialising in engraving, colour woodcuts and lithography, under Chika Macnab and Charles Murray who were his initial printmaking tutors. He then worked with Robert Sargent Austin and Malcolm Osborne for several months of a travelling scholarship at the Royal College of Art, with additional studies being made in France and Spain. He returned to teach at Glasgow School of Art (1931-48), and during the war he a reserve policeman (he recorded his experiences in a series of etchings), and from 1941-46 in the Pioneer Corps.

Post war, he taught at Hospitalfield, Arbroath from 1948–54, and then became Principal of Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, from 1954–72, where he developed printmaking. Also in Aberdeen, he resuscitated the Aberdeen Artists Society in 1958. After retirement in 1971, Fleming founded Peacock Printmakers and Artspace.

He was elected RSA in 1956, and having been a permanent member of the council of the Society of Artist Printmakers, he was in 1974 appointed chairman of Peacock Printmakers. Fleming scored an early success in 1931 when he engraved Gethsemane, which was bought by the French Government and is also in the collection of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Fleming was elected RSW in 1946, made ARSA in 1947, and RSA in 1956. He exhibited almost annually from 1929, and exhibited with Compass Gallery, Glasgow. His work is in the collections of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Belfast Art Gallery; Bradford Art Gallery; The McManus, Dundee; Kelvingrove Museums & Art Gallery; City of Edinburgh Collection; The Lillie, Milngavie; Liverpool Art Gallery; Newcastle Art Gallery; Paisley Art Gallery; Perth Art Gallery; The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and the Biblioteque-Nationale, Paris.