Ian McKenzie Smith Obituary– 1935-2025

07.11.2025

Portrait of Ian McKenzie Smith taken by Sasha McKenzie Smith.

By Neil Cooper

Ian McKenzie Smith, who has died aged 90, was a visionary curator, whose leadership in Aberdeen’s artistic and civic society saw the city’s art collection transformed. As director of Aberdeen Art Gallery from 1968 to 1989, then as Aberdeen’s City Arts Officer and Director of the Arts until 1996, McKenzie Smith married his historical artistic knowledge and forward-thinking sensibilities to focus on constantly reinventing the institution with contemporary work by living artists. 

McKenzie Smith gave quietly determined support to young artists across all disciplines, doing so with an understated Zen-like calm that betrayed his own influences as an artist. This made for a bold programme that was rooted in the North East of Scotland, but which looked outwards in a way that made for the basis of a world-class collection in a transformed artistic landscape.

Ian McKenzie Smith was born in Montrose, the younger of two brothers to Mary (née Benzie) and James McKenzie Smith. McKenzie Smith’s father worked on the railways in the North East of Scotland all of his adult working life, while his mother worked in service before they married.

As a child growing up in an Aberdeen tenement, McKenzie Smith spent time drawing. Secondary school was Robert Gordon’s College, nestled handily between Aberdeen Art Gallery and Gray’s School of Art (now part of Robert Gordon University) on Schoolhill. The attractions of both institutions opened him up to his own artistic potential, and he soon had his sights set on art school. 

Once at Gray’s he fell under the influence of an older generation of artists on staff at Gray's. These included DM Sutherland (d. 1973), who had been a director there, and who he had met while at school. Others included Ian Fleming (d. 1994), who became Principal in 1954, and revamped and re-energised the place. Another key figure was Robert Henderson-Blyth (d. 1970), another 1950s appointment who became head of drawing. These led McKenzie Smith in turn to the work of James Cowie and William Gillies. 

Whilst at Gray’s, McKenzie Smith attended two summer schools at Hospitalfield in Arbroath in 1958 and 1959. It was here he met Mae Fotheringham. The couple married in 1963, and had three children, with Mae working as an art teacher. McKenzie Smith referred to her as his great collaborator in everything they did. They were together until her death in 2023. 

Artist-in-residence at Hospitalfield during McKenzie Smith’s time there was Dundee born landscape painter James McIntosh Patrick (d. 1998). McKenzie Smith became friends with his son, Andrew McIntosh Patrick (d. 2024), who would go on to become a curator, collector and director of the Fine Art Society in London. Their friendship was one of McKenzie Smith’s connections with the Fleming Wyfold Foundation, which holds two of his works.

McKenzie Smith’s own widely exhibited artistic practice drew from an adventurous fusion of western and eastern influences. Key to this was a trip he made around Europe in the late 1950s with Glasgow School of Art contemporary Jack Knox (d. 2015). Both were on six-month travel scholarships, and, as young artists, lapped up everything in sight. 

In Brussels, McKenzie Smith and Knox stumbled on an exhibition of American abstract expressionism, brimming with energy and the shock of the new. They were stunned. On the flipside of this, in Paris, McKenzie Smith recalled seeing Japanese and Chinese artists, with Japanese born abstract expressionist Kenzo Okada particularly standing out. In Florence, he saw the work of fifteenth century Italian painter Piero della Francesca.

With Zen Buddhism also influencing him, McKenzie Smith absorbed all this to create his own melting pot of abstractions in work defined in part by its sense of calm. Both Pine (1990), and Torii (1996), held by the Fleming Foundation, reflect this.

McKenzie Smith was appointed Director of Aberdeen Art Gallery in 1968 during a pivotal era in the history of both the Gallery and the city. The arrival of the oil industry and the subsequent boom years transformed Aberdeen. Working in parallel, McKenzie Smith’s bold approach crystallised the Gallery’s ongoing policy of collecting the best contemporary art and design. He championed local artists, and introduced residencies and other innovations. High profile exhibitions he oversaw included a 1988 retrospective of fashion designer Bill Gibb that sat with the Gallery’s spirit of ongoing modernisation.

Through his relationships with private collectors, McKenzie Smith secured unique exhibitions and loans that sometimes led to major bequests. One of these was the Scottish Colourists collection acquired by artist-adventurer James McBey (d. 1959). McKenzie Smith developed a friendship with McBey’s widow, Marguerite McBey (d. 1999), and following her death the Marguerite McBey Trust was established. With McKenzie Smith as chair, the trust offered scholarships for artists in order to travel, just as he had in his early years. Recipients who went on to become major artists have included Kenny Hunter in 2005 and Frances Walker in 2007.

McKenzie Smith was key as well in developing new museums and organisations. Aberdeen Maritime Museum, Provost Skene's House, the Tolbooth Museum, the Scottish Sculpture Workshop and Peacock Printmakers all developed under his influence.

McKenzie Smith retired from his post in Aberdeen in 1996, but remained active, becoming president of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1998, and leading a historic effort to secure the institution’s long-term survival. His leadership and drive helped ensure that the RSA will celebrate its 200^thanniversary in 2026.

Other roles McKenzie Smith took on included a decade as President of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour from 1988 to 1998. He also served on the Committee for the British School at Rome, the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (Arts Council England) and as a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland. He was awarded a CBE in 2009. 

McKenzie Smith’s unique combination of gimlet-eyed artistic sensibilities and openness to current and future trends combined with a progressive civic will made him a vital force who changed Scotland’s artistic landscape forever.

Dr Ian McKenzie Smith CBE PPRSA, PPRSW, RGI, HRA, 3^rdAugust 1935-24th September 2025. He is survived by his and Mae’s daughter Sarah, and their sons, Patrick and Justin.