Geoffrey Key

Geoffrey Key (born 13 May,1941, Rusholme, Manchester, England) is a British painter and sculptor. A number of public art collections have examples of his work.

Key's mother, Marion, worked as an illustrator, and encouraged him to draw.

Key was educated at the Manchester High School of Art, whose headmaster, Ernest Goodman, established the Salford Art Club. After Goodman's death, its members chose Key as the Honorary President.

In 1958, Key enrolled at the Manchester Regional College of Art. At the college, Key was tutored by sculptor Ted Roocroft and painter Harry Rutherford.

After gaining the National Diploma of Design and the Diploma of Associateship of Manchester, the latter with distinction, Key took up a postgraduate scholarship in sculpture. His academic awards include the Heywood Medal in Fine Art and the Guthrie Bond Travelling Scholarship.

Key’s early work included an important period of development during which he concentrated on painting and drawing a specific area of the Derbyshire landscape, the Whiteley Nab hill, south of Glossop. Key created hundreds of images of this one landscape. Key later revealed that the purpose of this dedicated period of study was to build upon the firm foundation established by his academic training, whilst divesting himself of the influences he had absorbed in order to arrive at his own personal artistic language.

During this time, Key also worked as an art teacher at Broughton High Secondary School in Salford. Key left this job as his reputation grew and galleries such as Salford Art Gallery, The Rutherston Loan Collection and North West Arts began acquiring his works.

Key was elected to membership of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts in 1968 and was a prize winner in 1971. During this time, he was also commissioned to produce artworks by three companies in North West England – Mather & Platt, the former Richard Johnson & Nephew company, and the former Wilson’s Brewery. The Richard Johnson & Nephew pictures are now held by the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. Of the Manchester Academy Exhibition in 1979, Jane Clifford, writing in The Daily Telegraph commented "Perhaps the artist that stands out most is Geoffrey Key" "His female forms show a self confidence which is compelling".

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