Image: Artwork by Steve MacPherson © Rob Harris
The UH Art Collection at the University of Hertfordshire has announced a new acquisition: John Keane’s 'Egyptian Holiday' (1983). The painting was donated through the Contemporary Art Society from a private collection and joins the university’s accredited collection in Hatfield.
Keane, who was born in Hertfordshire, has built his career around the human impact of war, politics and social conflict. The announcement notes that 'Egyptian Holiday' was first shown in 1984, in the artist’s solo exhibition 'War Efforts', and that it reflects themes that have shaped his work for more than four decades. Keane came to international prominence in 1990, when the Imperial War Museum appointed him Official British War Artist for the Gulf War.
The university presents the gift as strengthening its accredited Art Collection while returning the work of one of Hertfordshire’s most significant contemporary artists to the county. As with other works in the collection, it is framed as an invitation to students, staff and visitors to engage with difficult ideas and to use art as a starting point for conversation across disciplines. The UH Art Collection holds more than 500 artworks displayed across the university’s campuses, including 13 outdoor sculptures on its Sculpture Walk.
The acquisition was announced in the UH Arts + Culture email bulletin, which also reported improvements to the university’s free Sculpture Walk maps and highlighted three artists represented in the collection whose work features in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: David Kefford, Karen Radford and Rana Begum. Kefford is showing the film 'Fox Companion (Nocturnal Encounter)' (2025); Radford has a print and an oil painting in the exhibition; Begum, who was elected a Royal Academician in 2019, is showing several works. The Summer Exhibition closes on 23 August.
The announcement gives no medium, dimensions or provenance details for 'Egyptian Holiday' beyond the Contemporary Art Society donation, and does not say when or where the painting will go on public display.
