Brian Taylor – A consistent Vision by Ben Uri Research Unit

Brian Taylor frbs fsps 1935–2013

A CONSISTENT VISION BRIAN TAYLOR frbs fsps 1935–2013

A CONSISTENT VISION

BEN URI

A CONSISTENT VISION

This catalogue is produced to coincide with the memorial exhibition Brian Taylor frbs fsps, 1935–2013, A Consistent Vision at Ben Uri, The London Jewish Museum of Art, 30 September – 13 October 2013.

Ben Uri 108a Boundary Road off Abbey Road London NW8 0RH www.benuri.org.uk Ben Uri Gallery and Museum Limited Registered Museum 973 Registered Charity 280389 Registered Company in England 1488690

Curated By David Glasser

Acknowledgements

Michele Franklin and her family Private collections Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London Dennis Wardleworth

All rights reserved. Any copy of this book issued by the publisher as a paperback is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

Detail illustrations Front cover: Michele, The Artists’ Wife, Pregnant bronze, 1991 Back cover: Artist with Burano Bull, bronze resin

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library cataloguing-inpublication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-900157-45-5 Edited by David J Glasser assisted by Helena Cuss, Laura Jones, Rachel Rotrand and Michele Franklin Designed by Alan Slingsby editionperiodicals.co.uk Photography and digital imaging Angelo Plantamura

We thank Manya Igel of Manya Igel Fine Arts for her Preferred Partnership which allows Free Entry to all our exhibitions in 2013

A CONSISTENT VISION Brian Taylor FRBS FSPS 1935â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD

David J. Glasser, Chairman, Ben Uri

BRIAN TAYLOR: A CONSISTENT VISION Dennis Wardleworth

EARLY WORK 1 951–1967

PRIZES 1 955–1958

MOTHER AND FATHER 1 955–1978

ALICE IN WONDERLAND 1 966

LILY PIER AND ANGUISHED HEADS 1 968–1971

BULLS, OXEN AND CALVES 1 972–1998

HORSES 1 963–1985

DOGS 1 960–2012

PORTRAITS AND FIGURES 1 962–1980

FAMILY 1 973–2013

102

THE DEATH CART 1 980–1994

106

ARTIST AND FAMILY

110

EXHIBITIONS

112

OBITUARY ichard Cork, The Guardian R

114

BEN URI hort history and mission statement S Patrons International Advisory Board

116

6 A Consistent Vision

CATALOGUE OF WORKS

Foreword Ben Uri addresses issues of art, identity and migration. This exhibition on the life and work of the late and distinguished sculptor Brian Taylor, whose untimely passing in early 2013 we commemorate, examines how the challenges of changing circumstances and identity influenced his career and work. Taylor was born into a proud working class background in the less than attractive part of the leafy suburban country town of Epsom in Surrey. His father, a bricklayer, was a physical man at home as well as at work and saw no further than his own past for Brian’s future. This created significant tensions and on occasions worse and resulted in a painful journey from one life to another as Brian fulfilled his dream of going to the Slade via first Sutton and then Epsom and Ewell School of Fine Arts and Crafts. The anguish of his adolescence left indelible marks on this pensive, sensitive creative young man which affected if not dominated his early to mid-career’s work. Taylor never succumbed to the temptation of fashion or commercial success. He was an artist’s artist – a sculptor’s sculptor. His fulfilment was either in the classroom, where he taught for some 30 years in England and Italy, or in his studio where he lost all sense of time and order as his work was all-consuming. He saw his role as an artist was to continue and mould the majestic, albeit unfashionable, tradition of British figurative sculpture rather than abandon it and join the abstract movement. He achieved this with an earthy realism, an exacting use of measurement and clay modelling, all of which resulted in a strong and distinctive aesthetic. His subjects ranged from early pained portraits of his father and others of the homeless to the opposite end of the emotional spectrum when he sculpted, in obvious triumphant joy, his wife and children. Throughout, it is the influence and connection to abstraction within his portraiture that engenders both intrigue and longer engagement. This started in earnest when he re-engaged with one of his student passions of sculpting animals. In 1971 in the mountains near Gubbio Taylor encountered the Burano breed of

horse and was captivated by its sheer size and strength and the vision of immortalising it through sculpture proved irresistible. The next year he completed his life size sculpture of this horse, which was followed by a cow, a bull and later by many of his favourite dogs, and created a new diversion and diversity in his work. Taylor from the start to the end of his career eschewed the opportunity for commercial success as he was unprepared to pay the price of public engagement or the inevitable influence on what he ‘had’ to produce to satisfy demand. He was content with the respect of his peers as an award winning student at the Slade through to being selected for inclusion of close to 90 group exhibitions including many Royal Academy Summer Shows and others at The Royal Society of British Sculptors. His reluctance for public engagement restricted his agreement for one man survey shows to only 12 during his over fifty year career. Relatively unknown is Taylor’s draughtsmanship, which this exhibition brings to notice. It reveals how he visibly embraced measured abstraction in this medium but never let it dominate his sculpture. In 1998 he was elected a Fellow Member of both The Royal Society of British Sculptors and The Society of Portrait Sculptors. In 2004 he was elected a Member of The Society of Equestrian Artists. In 2010 he was honoured by his election as Vice Principal of The Society of Portrait Sculptors. In 1981 the critic Timothy Hyman observed “no figurative sculptor of recent years has been able to create a consistent vision in which successive generations could recognise themselves, their needs and their concerns.” This exhibition should go some way to answering Hyman’s quandary as Brian Taylor’s life and distinguished career were dominated by ‘A Consistent Vision’ and we hope this exhibition gives inspiration and confidence to other reticent young artists to follow their instincts rather than the mood and flavour of the times. David J. Glasser Chairman

A Consistent Vision

Brian Taylor: Sculptor 1935–2013 A Consistent Vision It would be easy, but inaccurate, to dismiss Brian Taylor (1935-2013) as an old-fashioned sculptor. He continued to use the method of clay modelling, which had been widespread up to the middle of the twentieth century, after most sculptors had abandoned the technique. There were still sculptors who stayed with clay because of the opportunities afforded in portraiture and public sculpture. But Brian was as uninterested in commissioned work as he was in being fashionable. His overwhelming need was for a particular kind of artistic expression that satisfied his own emotional needs, and that figurative modelling in clay, of human beings and animals, was best able to achieve for him. His lack of any commercial ambition also meant that for much of his career he did not exhibit at all widely, so that his artistic achievements and ability were recognised only among a small circle of admirers. This changed in the last fifteen years of his life as his works were exhibited more. Here in this posthumous exhibition we have a chance to assess a wide range of his work, and his contribution to British art. For Brian the importance of figuration lay in expression. His earliest successful sculpture emphasised the expressive face, the screaming heads being the most extreme realisation of expression. He also sought to portray the body in contorted poses. His favourite models, like Mr Stanhope and Lily, he recruited from among the homeless, from tramps as they were called then. In the series that he called ‘Lily dancing’, Lily was not in fact dancing. As Brian explained to Laurence Edwards (b.1967) in the film in this exhibition, Brian put her in uncomfortable poses to stop her crying and to take her mind off her grief. But perhaps Lily’s discomfort also helped Brian deal with his own grief. Brian was born in December 1935, into a workingclass family in Epsom. His father was a bricklayer of some skill and repute. However Brian’s early childhood was marked by tension. One of his earliest memories as a small child was of clinging to his mother’s skirts and

8 A Consistent Vision

Old Man Stanhope bronze, 1978 Bronze, being covered with blood streaming from his mother’s wounded face, the result of her having being beaten by his father. His schooling was chaotic. As a very shy working-class boy he stood little chance. However he avidly read books from the local library and loved to draw. While his father wanted him to become a bricklayer like himself, his mother supported his desire to be an artist. At the age of fourteen he went to the Sutton School of Art and Craft, and a short period of relative happiness followed. Then he was seduced and then abandoned by a married woman, a near neighbour. In his unhappiness and after a fight at his school he attempted suicide and was committed to a mental institution. This was a grim Victorian building, full of hopeless cases, many of whom had been largely abandoned as impossible to treat. Many of these were shell-shocked soldiers, drilling in the enclosed exercise yard as if they were still in the army. Brian’s treatment however consisted mainly of art therapy, drawing and weaving, which perhaps taught him to use his art as a means to deal with his

Professor, William Coldstream (1908-1987), but was rescued by Professor A.H. ‘Gerry’ Gerrard (1899-1998), who persuaded him to concentrate on working in the School of Sculpture. Here he was taught by, among others, F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992), the surrealist sculptor. Henry Moore was also a visiting teacher for a period. Moore was struck by Brian’s ability, and at an end of term review spent most of the time talking about Brian’s work. This positive praise from someone so prestigious compelled the Slade to take Brian more seriously. He won a number of prizes, culminating in 1958 with the highly-valued Rome Prize, which he had entered almost by accident and won with a life-size figure of a boy from Antigua. McWilliam was one of the judges and played an important role in Brian’s winning of the prize.

The Dance of Lily Pier bronze, circa 1968–71 Dancing Figures 3, Bronze own unsettled feelings. On one occasion he recalled entering a room and finding one of the inmates

hanging from a beam. His reaction was to fetch his sketchbook and start drawing the dangling figure.

When Brian started his artistic career, figurative

sculpture was dominated by the influence of Henry Moore (1898-1986). As Timothy Hyman put it in an essay of 1981 accompanying the exhibition British

Sculpture in the Twentieth Century in the Whitechapel Art Gallery, ‘the influence of Moore … was away from any decisive figuration, and towards an art of shapemaking of “suggestive forms”.’ Sculptors seemed to ‘abandon … elements in the figure that were

distinctively human; heads were shrunk to featureless appendages, and hands lopped off.’ It is hardly

surprising that Brian with his overwhelming need for expression should have chosen a different route.

Brian’s drawings made at the mental institution

gained him a place at the Epsom and Ewell School of

Arts and Crafts in 1953, which was a stepping stone to the Slade School in the following year. He hated the

Slade at first, as a working-class boy largely surrounded by public school boys with whom he felt he had

nothing in common. He quarrelled with the Slade

Securing the Rome Prize and spending time in Rome was to be the foundation of Brian’s mature career. Winning the Prize was a great boost to his confidence, already enhanced by his success at the Slade. While at the Slade he had spent time in the British Museum looking at and admiring Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman sculpture. In Rome he was able to see and study many more ancient works, and spend more time working with live models. He was given, as a personal gift, a piece of travertine marble by Anthony Blunt (1907-1983), then Director of the Courtauld, who was visiting the Rome School. This allowed him to carve directly in marble for the first time. All this confirmed his desire to work with the figure. Above all he became very friendly with a number of Italian people. Living alongside Italians he seemed to lose much of his shyness. He became acquainted with the sculpture of Medardo Rosso (1858-1928), whom he very much admired. His affinity with Rosso lay not so much in technique as in his appreciation of Jeff model for the travertine carving circa 1959-62

A Consistent Vision

Rosso’s ability to obtain expression from his approach

handling of clay and in expressiveness. The screaming heads are reminiscent of the paintings of Francis Bacon.

and spending a little time in the British School of

With this technical armoury Brian moved back to London to take up a teaching post at the Camberwell College of Arts in 1965. In the six years that he had been away in Italy the world of contemporary British sculpture had undergone significant changes. The hegemony of Henry Moore and his pupils was coming into question. Anthony Caro (b.1924) had spent time in New York from 1960 working with and studying the work of the Abstract Expressionists. He had come under the influence of the sculptor David Smith (19061965) and the critic Clement Greenberg (1909-1994), and developed a method of totally abstract sculpture based on welded metal and found objects, which he was teaching at the St Martin’s School. Caro had given an influential one-man exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery which included such well-known works as the welded Sculpture Seven (1961), and Early One Morning (1962). What remained of the figurative tradition was being pushed into a diminishing corner.

to figuration. After his scholarship expired in 1961,

Athens, Brian decided to stay in Rome, earning a living by working as an assistant in the studio of Emilio Greco (1913-1985) until 1964. He also had two solo exhibitions in Rome.

He had therefore consolidated his technical

approach to sculpture, grounded in the figure, and using clay as the preliminary medium. Unlike the traditional technique, starting with a small size clay figure, the

maquette, and then expanding this to whatever size

was required, Brian preferred to start with a full size clay version, and then make smaller copies. He developed

a detailed measuring method by which he translated

information from his live model using a series of points which he placed within a notional rectangular box for both the original model and the clay figure which he

was building up. He can be seen using this technique in Laurence Edward’s film. What he wanted to do was to

use this approach to create the kind of expressiveness he saw in the work of Rosso. It was this technique

that he used with his ‘tramps’. He was probably also

influenced by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), both in the

In the 1970s Brian’s sculpture started to move away from the agonised heads of the ‘tramp’ stage of his work, to a different kind of figuration, of animals, of

Stretching Cat charcoal, 1953

Early abstract charcoal, 1954

10 A Consistent Vision

Brian, although he must have been aware of these changes, carried on with his programme. With the comparative financial security that the teaching post at Camberwell gave him, and the ability to use the facilities of the college, such as the foundry, he was able to embark on what was perhaps one of the most productive periods of his career, the period of Mr Stanhope, the dancing Lilys and a series of sculptures based on Alice in Wonderland when he used models from among the homeless of south London. Not that Brian disliked the abstract. Many of his drawings were abstract, either as designs in charcoal, or Islamic-style patterns, or the drawings which started as detailed observations of a ripened sunflower head and developed into almost three-dimensional tangled forms.

Islamic drawing pen, pencil and ink, 1960

Crescent Sunflower charcoal, 1965

Sunflower charcoal, 1990

by playing a high pitched whistle. What resulted was perhaps his most remarkable single work, The Burano Horse. From then on every summer he returned to Gubbio, making sculptures of a bull, a number of cows and calves. He bought a derelict house in Le Marche, to live in and use as a studio. The house had magnificent views over the Serra. He was also drawing the landscape, in cloud, in rain, and in sunshine.

Alice in Wonderland bronze, circa 1966 dogs, cats, horses, bulls and cows. He had worked out the agonies of his early childhood and was seeking a greater maturity. There was another influence at work, Italy, which he had not lost touch with. He had continued to visit his friends in Rome. In early 1971 he was taken to the mountains, the Serra di Burano near Gubbio, that separate Umbria from Le Marche. He was immediately struck by the beauty of the landscape and encountered a large horse, the Burano Horse. His sole ambition became to make a full-size sculpture of the horse. In the college summer break that year he did precisely that and started. It was a task of considerable difficulty. Not only was it much larger than anything that he had attempted before, but there was the problem of getting what was a very large and very fierce horse to stand still for long enough to use his detailed measuring technique. He succeeded by distracting it by splashing wet clay on its nose, or

Sunny Day, Haystacks, Umbria, Italy charcoal, circa 1970

In the late 1970s a young student, Michele Franklin, came for a lesson in sculpture. She was to become his wife, and they were to have three children. This brought him much contentment and a source of more subjects for sculpture. There are a number of portraits of Michele, including one powerful study of her in the later stages of pregnancy. There are also many portraits of their children. The new family also brought more responsibilities. British sculpture in the 1980s seemed to be developing in many different directions at once. Caro’s brand of abstraction had given way to many different forms of abstraction: land art, minimal art, the beginnings of conceptual art, even performance art. After a period of prosperity, the country’s economy went into recession with markedly less funding for art and for art colleges. Brian found himself in a battle to retain the life class at Camberwell, and any course of figurative sculpture at all. It was a battle which he won. The life class was retained until he retired in 1984. Brian had never made any serious attempt to make himself known in the world of art. He disliked the idea of trying to sell his sculpture, so he rarely exhibited. He did not join any of the organisations for artists. His salary from the Camberwell School was sufficient to meet his day to day bachelor needs. He never dreamed of riches. He just wanted to get on with his sculpture. Although he lost much of his shyness when in Italy, in Britain, except with a few close friends, in any group

Rainy Day, Umbria, Italy charcoal, circa 1970

A Consistent Vision

Burano Horse bronze, 1971-72

Burano Bull bronze resin, 1973

12â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Burano Cow plaster, 1974

Calf bronze, circa 1973

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of people he would be silent. Now with a growing family and no job he needed to have his sculpture sold. Michele became his manager. She had small children, and her own career as a painter, but she was determined to get Brian the recognition he deserved. He started to exhibit at the Royal Academy Summer Show and then elsewhere. Michele encouraged him to seek election to the Society of Portrait Sculptors and the Royal Society of British Sculptors. This gave him more exhibiting opportunities, and more chance to get his work sold, and also allowed him to meet many younger sculptors who favoured figurative work, and who became admirers and friends. Later, in 2010, he was elected as Vice Principal of the Society of Portrait Sculptors, a tribute from his fellow members. In 1980 Brian had produced a full-size figure which he called The Executioner. The figure is standing upright with arms raised above the head and wrists tied together. The head is bowed and the scream is almost hidden by the raised arms. This is the last of the screaming heads, but the first work concerning a more intense preoccupation with death. As a student he had made an etching of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He now took up the study of many representations of Apocalypse, such as the etching by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). The result was a large frieze which he completed in 2010, his last major work. The four horsemen rampage around the space. Contorted human figures emerge from the surface, in the manner of some of the figures on Rodin’s Gates of Hell (commissioned 1880 and never completed). In the centre in an eddy of stillness is a figure, curled up in the foetal position, protected, perhaps by death,

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Dürer, woodcut, circa 1497–98

14 A Consistent Vision

The Executioner bronze, 1980

Relief of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bronze resin, 2010

from the surrounding mayhem. This is a powerful and disturbing work, showing Brian’s creativity still at its active best. Death was the central theme of a work which also preoccupied his later years, but which never came to fruition, The Death Cart. He read avidly about the Holocaust for a period of some years while thinking about this conception. Perhaps his imagination was captured by the spectre of the death trains to the extermination camps. But the starting point for the work was something quite different, something almost idyllic, Piero della Francesco’s (1420-1492) panel paintings of The Triumph of Federico II da Montefeltro, (painting made between 1465 and 1472) Duke of Urbino, and The Triumph of Battista Sforza, the Duke’s wife. Piero was born and lived most of his life in Sansepolcro a town just over the mountains from Brian’s summer house. Urbino is a city just to the east of this. The Duke was a retired mercenary soldier. He commissioned a pair of portraits of himself and his wife from Piero, which the artist painted as upper body profiles, the two figures facing each other in front of the kind of landscape which Brian had come to love. The paintings are in the Uffizi in Florence. On the back of the panels are the two triumphs. A Triumph was a procession made by a victorious general and his army through their home city carrying their booty, as in Mantegna’s (c.1431-1515) The Triumphs of Caesar (painted between 1484 and 1492) in Hampton Court. Piero’s Triumphs are much simpler. Two horsedrawn carts, one carrying the Duke, the other his wife, approach one other on a rocky road, against a backdrop of the familiar mountain landscape. Both carts also carry other figures and objects. The pairs of horses are

Allegorical Triumph of Battista Sforza Piero della Francesca, panel, 1472

Plaster relief representing The Death Cart, used by Taylor for inspiration depicted as striding out moving towards each other, yet the painting has a dream-like stillness. Brian envisaged a work which would have been a sculpture consisting of a number of figures, including people and animals, a procession to Death led by a cart. He made no sketches of the conception. It was developing in his head over more than fifteen years. He made a number of maquettes for figures. He had made the wheels of the cart. According to Michele he believed he had many years left in which to finish the work. Alas, he had not. He mostly exhibited single works in exhibitions like the Royal Academy Summer Show or at Royal Society of British Sculptors exhibitions, but in 1999 he had a one-man retrospective show at The Gallery in Cork Street. Here he showed a quarter-size version of the Burano Horse, a full-size Burano Bull, as well as his earlier screaming heads pieces, and his later portraits. It was the first time that the full range of his sculpted work had been shown, and led to a wider appreciation

Allegorical Triumph of Federico da Montefeltro Piero della Francesca, panel, 1472

A Consistent Vision

Death Cart, Figure with arms outstretched bronze, 1994

Death Cart, Figure with raised arms bronze, circa 1994

of his art. In her accompanying essay Judith Bumpus wrote: ‘His retrospective will bring [his sculpture] before a broader public, displaying a serious and solid achievement. This work has evolved privately, but now deserves wider recognition, for he belongs to a small, but increasingly appreciated, group of artists who have convincingly sustained the tradition of figurative sculpture.’

that Timothy Hyman called for thirty years ago could be handsomely realised.

In his 1981 essay, Timothy Hyman wrote: ‘This eclipse of the figure in serious sculpture … has left the whole terrain in shadow; but I think the cause of neglect goes beyond fashion. … [N]o figurative sculptor of recent years has been able to create a consistent vision in which successive generations could recognise themselves, their needs and their concerns.’ This now seems a harsh verdict on those figurative sculptors who amid the din of increasing abstraction were trying to make their voices heard. Perhaps if Brian had exhibited more regularly in the earlier part of his career, by convincingly proving that figuration could still have a unique expressiveness, he might have helped with others to create the necessary space for figuration to thrive. As interest in figuration appears to be reviving, perhaps this memorial exhibition will help to show the current generation that the kind of ‘consistent vision’

16 A Consistent Vision

Dennis Wardleworth

Dennis Wardleworth graduated in theoretical physics at Trinity College Cambridge in 1962. In 1997 he graduated in Art History at the Open University and in 2002 gained a PhD at Southampton Solent University, studying under Professor Anne Massey. His main research area has been British sculpture in the twentieth century. He has recently published William Reid Dick, Sculptor (Ashgate, 2013).

References Bumpus, Judith, 1999. Brian Taylor: Sculpting from Life. London: The Gallery in Cork Street. Cork, Richard, 2 April 2013. Brian Taylor obituary. London: The Guardian. Edwards, Laurence, 2013. Sitting for Brian. A memorial film, on view at this exhibition. Hyman, Timothy, 1981. ‘Figurative Sculpture since 1960’ in Nairne S. and Serota N. (eds), British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery.

Apocalypse Horse, profile charcoal, 2005

Apocalypse Horse, front view charcoal, 2005

A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

EARLY WORK

Old Man with a Hat circa 1951 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Figure of Unknown Man, front ciment fondue, circa 1960

Figure of Unknown Man, back ciment fondue, circa 1960

Figure Bending Forward plaster, circa 1954

Figure Stretching Backwards ciment fondue, circa 1954

20â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

African Head Male clay, circa 1958

Female Prostitute, back clay, circa 1954

Female Prostitute, front clay, circa 1954 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Seated Woman, profile plaster, circa 1957

Unknown female figure, back ciment fondue, circa 1956

22â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Madonna ciment fondue, circa 1963

Unknown female figure ciment fondue, circa 1956

Unknown female figure, profile ciment fondue, circa 1956

Stretching Cat bronze, circa 1956

Stretching Cat drawing pen, circa 1956 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Jeff model for travertine carving, back travertine marble, circa 1959–62

24 A Consistent Vision

Jeff model for travertine carving, profile ciment fondue, circa 1959–62

Luisa Javarone Portrait stone carving, circa 1960 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Grief Portrait plaster, circa 1956

Portrait of Scott Medâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Daughter bronze, circa 1964

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Luisa Javarone portrait ciment fondue, circa 1960 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Man Looking Up, profile clay, circa 1965

Greyhound, commissioned relief bronze, circa 1962-65

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Man Looking Up clay, circa 1965 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Man Looking Down ciment fondue, circa 1962–65

Smiling Head, portrait plaster, circa 1967

30 A Consistent Vision

Man Looking Down profile, ciment fondue, circa 1962–65

Twisting Man with Arms Outstretched ciment fondue, circa 1962â&#x20AC;&#x201C;65 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Crying Madonna marble, circa 1962–64

32 A Consistent Vision

PRIZES

Boy From Antigua, Rome Scholarship winner, front clay, circa 1958

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Boy From Antigua, portrait bronze, 1958

Boy From Antigua, back clay, circa 1958

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Boy From Antigua clay, circa 1958

Winner of the 1955 first prize for composition at The Slade School of Art oil, 1955

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MOTHER AND FATHER

Cissie with Curlers, The Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mother bronze, circa 1978

A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

The Artists’s Father bronze, 1963

Cissie, The Artist’s Mother ciment fondue, circa 1955

40 A Consistent Vision

Cissie, The Artist’s Mother, profile ciment fondue, circa 1956

Cissie, The Artist’s Mother ciment fondue, circa 1956

Cissie with Curlers, The Artist’s Mother, profile bronze, circa 1978

Cissie with Curlers, the artist’s mother bronze, circa 1978 A Consistent Vision

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Alice in Wonderland bronze, 1966

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The Duchess from Alice in Wonderland, profile bronze, circa 1966

The King from Alice in Wonderland bronze, 1966

The Duchess from Alice in Wonderland bronze, circa 1966

44â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Alice in Wonderland 2 bronze, circa 1966

The Cook from Alice in Wonderland bronze, circa 1966

The Cook, profile bronze, circa 1966 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

LILY PIER AND ANGUISHED HEADS

The Dance of Lily Pier bronze, circa 1968–71

A Consistent Vision

The Dance of Lily Pier, Crouching bronze, circa 1968–71

The Dance of Lily Pier, Crouching, detail bronze, circa 1968–71

48 A Consistent Vision

Lily Dancing bronze, circa 1968–71

Portrait of Lily Pier bronze 1968–71

Lily Pier, circa 1966

A Consistent Vision

Anguished Heads 7, profile bronze, circa 1968–71

Anguished Heads 5, profile bronze, circa 1968–71

50 A Consistent Vision

Anguished Heads 5 bronze, circa 1968–71

Anguished Heads 7 bronze, circa 1968–71 A Consistent Vision

Anguished Heads 1, Shouting Man, profile bronze, circa 1968–71

52 A Consistent Vision

Anguished Heads 9 bronze,circa 1968–71

Anguished Heads 8, The Artist as a Boy bronze, circa 1968–71 A Consistent Vision

Anguished Heads 6 bronze, circa 1968–71

Anguished Heads 3 bronze, circa 1968–71

54 A Consistent Vision

Anguished Heads 4 bronze, circa 1968–71

BULLS, OXEN AND CALVES

Cow’s Head bronze, circa 1972 A Consistent Vision

Burano Bull, Turning, Small bronze, 1998

Burano Bull, Head Up, Small bronze, 1998

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Burano Cow plaster, 1974

Procession of Oxen – Single Bended Knee Oxen circa 1996

Procession of Oxen, front circa 1996

Procession of Oxen circa 1996 A Consistent Vision

Burano Bull, Medium Size bronze, circa 1998

Procession of Oxen with Curly Tails bronze, 1995

60â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Calf bronze, circa 1973 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Standing Calf plaster, circa 1973

Standing Calf 1 bronze, circa 1973

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Calf, relief bronze, circa 1972

Standing Calf 3 plaster, circa 1973

Calf bronze, 1973 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

HORSES

Burano Horse Small bronze, circa 1972 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Horse plaster, circa 1963

Horse skull cement, circa 1963

Burano Horse bronze, 1971â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1972

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Horse 1, Small, plaster, circa 1967

Horse Head with Neck bronze, circa 1970

Horse Head bronze, circa 1970 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Donkey clay, circa 1985

Burano Horse Small, profile bronze, circa 1972

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DOGS

Greyhound Billie ciment fondue, circa 1960

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Carving of Greyhound Billie marble, unfinished, circa 1965

Woman with Greyhound Dog plaster, circa 1967

72â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Lilie Lurcher portrait bronze, 2003

Reg, bull terrier bronze, 2003 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Lilie Lurcher bronze, 2006

Lilie Lurcher, open legs, head up, small bronze, circa 2008

Lilie Curled Up, back bronze, circa 2009

74â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Plan and elevation of dog (Lurcher Lilie) charcoal, pencil and pen 2008

Lilie Curled Up bronze, circa 2009

Lilie, legs open, head down bronze, 2009

Lilie Lurcher Rolling bronze, 2012 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

PORTRAITS AND FIGURES

Luisa Javarone, portrait carving A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 77 marble, circa 1962

Sally, portrait bronze, circa 1970

Anne-Marie, torso bronze, circa 1970â&#x20AC;&#x201C;72

78â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Smiling Head Bronze, circa 1970

Female Figures on Chaises Longues plaster, circa 1970

Female Portrait for Figures on Chaise Longues plaster circa 1970

Unknown Woman Portrait with Blowing Hair, plaster, circa 1970 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Emily Hoffnung bronze, 1976

Phillipa Portrait bronze, circa 1976.

80â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Sian Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Keefe, profile, detail bronze, circa 1976

Sian O’Keefe bronze, circa 1976 A Consistent Vision

Figure Falling Backwards bronze 1979

Debbie, standing figure, back bronze, circa 1980

82â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Debbie, standing figure bronze, circa 1980

African Girl bronze, 1978

Lolly Batty bronze, 1979 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Old Man Stanhope bronze, 1978

84â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Old Man Stanhope, profile bronze, circa 1978 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

FAMILY

Baby’s Head, The Artist’s Nephew bronze, circa 1973

A Consistent Vision

Michele, The Artist’s Wife bronze, 1979

Michele, The Artist’s Wife, Age 19, profile bronze, 1977

88 A Consistent Vision

Michele, The Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wife, Age 19 bronze, 1977 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Michele Standing Pregnant bronze, 1988

90â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Michele, The Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wife, torso bronze, 1980 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Baby Belle, The Artist’s Daughter, relief plaster, circa 1990

Baby Belle, The Artist’s Daughter, profile plaster, circa 1990

92 A Consistent Vision

Michele, The Artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Wife, Pregnant bronze, 1991

A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Michele Giving Birth 1995

94â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Dashiell, Age 3 bronze, 1995 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Belle With Plaits, The Artist’s Daughter, Age 12 bronze, 2001

Belle, The Artists Daughter, Age 8 bronze circa 1997

96 A Consistent Vision

Gabriel, The Artist’s Son, Age 6 bronze, 2001.

Dashiell, Age 10 bronze, 2002

Belle, The Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Daughter, Age 14 bronze circa 2004

Dashiell, Age 10, profile bronze, 2002 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

Michele As Woman Awakening bronze, 2012

Woman Awakening Pregnant clay, 2012

98â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Gabriel, The Artist’s Son, Age 17, profile bronze, 2012

Dashiell, The Artist’s Son Age 19, profile bronze, 2012

Dashiell, The Artist’s Son, Age 19 bronze, 2012 A Consistent Vision

Belle with Skull, torso bronze, 2013

100â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Belle with Skull, torso, profile bronze, 2013

Michele, The Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wife, Age 54, profile bronze, 2013 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

101

THE DEATH CART

The Executioner bronze, 1980 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

103

Found object plaster relief, date unknown

Death Cart, Figure 2, Arms Outstretched bronze, 199

104â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Death Cart, Figure with Raised Arms bronze, circa 1994

ARTIST AND FAMILY

Brian Taylor aged about 32

106â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Brian with sculpture of his dog Billie, 1961, The Borghese Gardens, Rome

Photograph Luisa Javarone

Brian, top left in teeshirt, pitching hay in Italy, about 1968 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

107

Brian sculpting Michele for Stretching Woman, 1978

Michele, aged 20, posing for Stretching Woman, 1978

108â&#x20AC;&#x192; A Consistent Vision

Brian with parrot, Italy, aged 58

Brian with his wife Michele and their three children, Belle, Dashiell and Gabriel, 2011 A Consistent Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x192;

109

BRIAN TAYLOR Born 22 December 1935, died 21 March 2013

2012

Education

2011

Worked in Rome in the studios of Emilio Greco, Renato Javarone, The Marquese di Colbertaldo. 1961 British School of Athens, Greece 1958-61 Rome Scholarship, Accademia Britannica, Rome, Italy 1954-58 Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London 1953 Epsom and Ewell School of Art and Crafts 1950-52 Sutton School of Fine Arts and Crafts, Surrey

1962-64

Awards

2013

1998

1958

1957–58

1956

1954

Posthumous – Jean Masson Davidson Award for best sculptor at Society of Portrait Sculptors The Discerning Eye – Sculpture Prize – Art Review First Prize for Composition The Rome Scholarship – Italy Scholarship – The Slade Postgraduate Year Two First Prizes in Sculpture – The Slade School of Art Second Prize in Composition – The Slade School of Art First prize – Painting – The Slade School of Art

Solo Exhibitions

2013

2009

2005

2000

1999

1992

1978

1970

1962

1960

1954

Ben Uri, The London Jewish Museum of Art (Posthumous) Woodbridge School, Suffolk Eltham College, London Ives Street Gallery, Chelsea, London The Gallery, Oxo Building, London The Gallery, Cork St, London Mary Kleinman Gallery, London South London Gallery, London Greenwich Theatre Gallery, London Via Dell Corso Gallery, Rome Babuinetta Gallery, Rome Zwemmer’s Gallery, London.

Group Exhibitions

2013

2012

Society of Portrait Sculptors – Posthumously – April Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh The Garden Gallery, Hampshire The Royal Academy Summer Show The Garden Gallery, Hampshire Robert Bowman Gallery – Duke Street, St James’s, London Society of Portrait Sculptors Artparks International

110 A Consistent Vision

Threadneedle Prize Mall Galleries, London Artparks International 2011 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2011 Robert Bowman Gallery – Duke Street, St James’s, London 2011 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2011 Royal Academy Summer Show – figure listed in Brian Sewell’s “Top Ten” 2010 Go Figurative – Broadgate, London 2010 Newby Hall Estate, Yorkshire 2010 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2010 Butley Mills Gallery, Norfolk 2010 Threadneedle Street Figurative Prize – Mall Galleries, London 2010 Winchester Cathedral 2010 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2010 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2010 Guernsey Artparks 2009 Artparks International 2009 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2009 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2008 Threadneedle Street Figurative Prize – Mall Galleries, London 2008 Artparks International, Guernsey 2008 Butley Mills Gallery, Norfolk 2008 The Garden Gallery 2008 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2008 Royal Society of British Sculptors 2007 The Garden Gallery 2007 Royal Society of British Sculptors 2007 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2007 Halesworth Art Festival 2007 Newby Hall Estate, North Yorkshire 2006 Goldmark Gallery, Rutland 2006 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2006 Newby Estate Hall Sculpture Park, North Yorkshire 2006 Royal Society of British Sculptors 2006 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2006 Blind Art, Bankside Gallery, London 2005 Artparks, International 2005 Newby Hall Estate, North Yorkshire 2005 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2005 Royal Society of British Sculptors 2005 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2005 Blind Art – The Royal College of Art, London 2004 Society of Equestrian Artists 2004 Royal Society of British Sculptors 2004 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2004 Newby Hall Sculpture Park 2003 Artparks International 2003 Newby Hall Sculpture Park 2003 Royal Society of British Sculptors

Group Exhibitions

Society of Portrait Sculptors 2002 The Royal Academy Summer Show 2001 The Blackheath Gallery, London 2001 The Garden Gallery, Hampshire 2001 Newby Hall Estate, North Yorkshire 2001 Royal Society of British Sculptors Annual Show 2001 Artparks International 2001 Society of Portrait Sculptors 2001 The Royal Academy, Summer Show, London 2000 The Royal Society of British Sculptors – Christie-Wild International, New York 2000 The Royal Society of British Sculptors – Summer Exhibition, London 2000 The Royal Society of British Sculptors – “People’s Portraits”, touring London, Birkenhead, Canterbury, Bristol, Derby, Doncaster, Cardiff, Exeter, Durham and Scotland 1999 The Royal Academy, Summer Show, London 1999 Bath Art Fair, Bath 1999 Chelsea Art Fair, Chelsea Town Hall, London 1998 The Royal Academy, Summer Show, London 1998 Kensington Art & Design Show, Kensington, London 1998 City of London Art Fair, London 1998 The Discerning Eye – Mall Gallery, London 1998 The London Contemporary Art & Design Fair, Kensington, London 1998 Society of Portrait Sculptors – “The Gallery”, 28 Cork St, London 1998 Edwin Coe, London 1998 Internet – ArtOnline.uk 1998 “Whitechapel Open” Studio Show 1997 The Discerning Eye – Mall Gallery, London 1997 Cheltenham Touring Drawing Competition 1997 Blackheath Gallery, London – commission for new building in Greenwich 1997 The Royal Society of Portrait Sculptors -“The Gallery”- 28 Cork St, London 1995 Edwin Coe, London 1992 Whitechapel Open Exhibition, London 1991 Edwin Coe, London 1984 Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Ockley, Surrey 1984 Royal Academy Summer Show, London 1983 Royal Academy Summer Show, London 1982 Royal Academy Summer Show, London 1982 Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery, London 1981 Royal Academy Summer Show, London 1981 Mall Gallery, London 1980 “Society of Rome Scholars”, South London Gallery, London. 2003

Guest Lectureships and Sabbaticals 2005–2011 2005–2010

2006

1984

1965–84

1982

1978

1974-76 1974-76 1974-76

Studio Master Classes Master Classes – Heatherley School of Art Master Class – Suffolk Sabbatical – Working Tour of the United States Camberwell School of Art, London Visiting Art Director, Accademia Britannica, Rome Sabbatical for written treatise of life-size bronze horse Visiting Lecturer, Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall Goldsmith’s College of Art, London University, London Winchester College of Art.

Selected Media Coverage

2011

1999

1998

1997

1989

London Evening Standard. Listed in Brian Sewell’s “Top Ten” sculptors in the Summer Show at the Royal Academy. Art Review – Taylor’s life-size “Burano Bull” London Evening Standard – Taylor’s life-size “Burano Horse” Film by Ralph Steadman about Taylor’s “Burano Horse” The Monocle Magazine – Feature – figure of “Belle” Art Review – Taylor’s life-size “Burano Horse” Autocar – Feature – Horse and Car – Ralph Steadman The Telegraph – Feature – Taylor’s life-size bronze horse in the garden of Ralph Steadman.

Professional Bodies

2010

2004

1998

Vice Principal of The Society of Portrait Sculptors Membership of The Society of Equestrian Artists Membership – Fellow Member of The Society of Portrait Sculptors Membership – Fellow Member of The Royal Society of British Sculptors.

A Consistent Vision

111

Obituary, 2 April 2013 Richard Cork The Guardian, 2 April 2013 The sculptor Brian Taylor, who has died of liver cancer aged 77, was particularly fascinated by the study of human and animal forms. In 1956, when he was a student at the Slade School of Art in London, he produced a lifesize Portrait of Cissie, a closely observed head of his mother. Seen with her hair in curlers, Cissie is portrayed with frank, clear-eyed affection. And over half a century later, Taylor was still energetically engaged in modelling heads of his wife, Michele, their daughter, Belle, and his motherin-law, Beverly. Born into a working-class family in Cheam, Surrey, he became obsessed as a child by natural history. Perpetually drawing while reading library books, he was encouraged by his art teacher at school. Then he joined his cousin, the painter Terry Setch, at Sutton and Cheam School of Art (1950-52). Taylor remembered it later as “paradise”, but his emotional involvement with an older woman became so traumatic that he attempted to take his own life. For nine months he was committed to Netherne hospital, where he found the treatment “both strange and stimulating”. Fortunately, part of his therapy involved drawing and painting, and in 1953 he gained a place at Epsom and Ewell School of Art. The following year Taylor’s linocuts were included in an exhibition at Zwemmer’s gallery, London. Still only 18, he was fascinated by Dostoevsky and such doom-laden mythological themes as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But at Epsom, Taylor started to work more from the observed world, focusing on “the study of people; their psychology, character and way of life”. He was learning how to escape from gloomy introspection and look outwards. After entering the Slade in 1954, he was encouraged by Henry Moore on his visits to the school. They shared an admiration for early sculpture, which Taylor studied at the British Museum. In 1958, his life-size clay nude Boy from Antigua won him a three-year scholarship to Rome. Italian art proved a revelation, from the ancient Belvedere Torso to the early modernist sculpture by Medardo Rosso. Anthony Blunt, the director of the Courtauld Institute, gave Taylor a tall block of travertine marble, from which he made his first direct carving, a life-size image called Jeff based on a man pulling off his shirt. Executed in a loose, free style, it contrasts with the more naturalistic portrait heads he produced soon afterwards. In 1960 they were included in his first solo show, in Rome. After his scholarship ended, Taylor stayed on, working as a studio assistant for Emilio Greco and other sculptors. Soon after Taylor returned to Britain in 1963, his Slade contemporary Paul de Monchaux invited him to join a new

112 A Consistent Vision

department at Camberwell School of Art, south London. He taught there from 1965 until 1984, becoming deputy head of sculpture and keeping alive his passionate belief in the prime importance of drawing and life-room study. For a while, his own work explored themes of mental instability, based either on characters from Alice in Wonderland or his first-hand study of distressed homeless people. Taylor’s bronze The Dance of Lily Pier – a former student at Camberwell who would be “crying and screaming most of the time” – is among his most powerful and disturbing works. After completing it in 1971, he visited the Serra di Burano, between the Italian regions of Umbria and Le Marche. There he encountered a rare breed of giant horse. Impressed by its muscular strength and prodigious lung capacity, which enabled it to run while pulling a heavy cart, Taylor decided to make a life-size model of it. Although “it would try to bite me if I came within range”, Taylor splashed wet clay on the animal’s nose, and “during the 10 or so minutes that it spent licking the mud off its nose, I was able to nip in and take close measurements and observations of its head and front parts without being killed!” In 1972 Taylor made a monumental bronze called Burano Horse, inspired by one of the animals he found in the valley of Santa Maria di Burano. Taylor fell in love with the area, staying with peasant farmers, who lived near the small parish church of Sansepolcro. Over the next two decades he planned a multipart sculpture with animals and figures “as a celebration of the beauty of the Burano valley and its community” incorporating the church and inspired as well by Piero della Francesca. The work was realised just to the extent of Taylor’s life-size sculptures of a bull, horses, oxen and cows, all studied directly from animals tethered in an Italian barn. The darker side of his imagination prompted him to plan a far more disturbing work, The Death Cart, attempting to portray “the death that is in life”. Though he continued to work on it for the rest of his own life, he completed only a few figures for it. In 1998 Taylor was elected a member of the Society of Portrait Sculptors and the Royal Society of British Sculptors. The following year, a retrospective exhibition, Sculpting from Life, was held at The Gallery in Cork St, London: at the Society of Portrait Sculptors’ annual show there next month Taylor’s achievement will be recognised with the Jean Masson Davidson award. He is survived by Michele, whom he married in 1988, and their children, Belle, Dashiell and Gabriel. ●● Brian Taylor, sculptor, born 22 December 1935; died 21 March 2013 Reproduced courtesy of Richard Cork and The Guardian

A Consistent Vision

113

Short history and mission statement Ben Uri, ‘The Art Museum for Everyone,’ focuses

AA Temporary Exhibitions: Curating, touring and hosting

migrant communities to London since the turn of the 20th

widest artistic appeal which, without the museum’s focus,

distinctively on Art, Identity and Migration across all

century. It engages the broadest possible audience through its exhibitions and learning programmes.

The museum was founded on 1 July 1915 by the

Russian émigré artist Lazar Berson at Gradel’s Restaurant, Whitechapel, in London’s East End.

The name, ‘The Jewish National Decorative Art

Association (London), “Ben Ouri”’, echoed that of legendary biblical craftsman Bezalel Ben Uri, the creator of the

tabernacle in the Temple of Jerusalem. It also reflects a

kinship with the ideals of the famous Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts founded in Jerusalem nine years earlier in 1906. Ben Uri’s philosophy is based on our conviction that, by

fostering easy access to art and creativity at every level, it

important internationally-focused exhibitions of the would not be seen in the UK or abroad.

AA Publications: Commissioning new academic research on artists and their historical context to enhance the museum’s exhibitions and visitor experience.

AA Library And Archive: A resource dating from the turn of the 20th century, documenting and tracing in parallel the artistic and social development of both Ben Uri and

Jewish artists, who were working or exhibiting in Britain, as part of the evolving British historical landscape.

AA Education & Community Learning: For adults and

students through symposia, lectures, curatorial tours and publications.

can add weight to our two guiding principles:‘The Dignity

AA Schools: Ben Uri’s nationally available ‘Art in the Open’

connects with over 300,000 people a year via its various

London Grid for Learning’ is available on demand to 25,000

of Difference’ and ‘The Equality of Citizenship’. Ben Uri creative platforms.

The museum positively and imaginatively

demonstrates its value as a robust and unique bridge

between the cultural, religious, political differences and beliefs of fellow British citizens.

Our positioning of migrant artists from different

communities in London within the artistic and historical, rather than religious or ethnic, context of the British national heritage is both key and distinctive.

Through the generous support of our ‘Preferred

Partner’ Manya Igel Fine Arts, we provide Free Entry to all our exhibitions, removing all barriers to entry and participation.

Ben Uri offers the widest access to all its programming

and resources via physical and virtual access including

through publications, our website and outreach, as follows: AA The Permanent Collection: Comprising 1,300 works,

the collection is dominated by the work of first and second generation émigré artists and supported by a growing group of emerging contemporary artists, who will be

a principal attraction in the generations to come. The

largest collection of its kind in the world, it can be accessed physically or virtually via continued exhibition, research, conservation and acquisitions.

114 A Consistent Vision

programme via the ‘National Education Network’ and The schools across the United Kingdom. Focus-related visits,

after-school art clubs, family art days and competitions are also regular features.

AA Artists: Regular artists’ peer group programmes,

Ben Uri International Jewish Artists of the Year Awards competition, Guidance and affiliation benefits.

AA Care In The Community: pioneering project, ‘Art as

Therapy’ addresses the needs of the elderly by practising

artists soon to be expanded to assist in care programmes for the young who have behaviour and or addiction problems.

AA WEBSITE: Provides an online educational and access

tool, to function as a virtual gallery and artists’ reference resource for students, scholars and collectors.

The strength of the museum’s growing collection and

our active engagement with our public – nationally and internationally – reinforces the need for Ben Uri to have

a permanent museum and gallery in the heart of Central

London alongside this country’s great national institutions. Only then will the museum fulfil its potential

and impact the largest audiences from the widest communities from home and abroad.

Ben Uri Patrons Clare Amsel

Manya Igel Fine Arts

Susan and Martin Paisner

H. W. Fisher and Company

Jacob Mendelson Scholarship Trust

Shoshana and Benjamin Perl

Wendy Fisher

Jewish Memorial Council

The Foyle Foundation

Sandra and John Joseph

Lélia Pissarro and David Stern

Esther and Simon Bentley

Patsy and David Franks

Neil Kitchener QC

Blick Rothenberg

Franklin Family

Miriam and Richard Borchard

Barbara and David Glass

Brandler Galleries, Brentwood

Lindy and Geoffrey Goldkorn

Annely Juda Fine Art Gretha Arwas Pauline and Daniel Auerbach

Barry Cann Marion and David Cohen Sheila and Dennis Cohen Charitable Trust Nikki and Mel Corin Suzanne and Henry Davis Rachel and Mike Dickson Peter Dineley Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Marion and Manfred Durst

The Fidelio Charitable Trust

Sue and David Glasser

Goldmark Gallery, Rutland Madelaine and Craig Gottlieb Averil and Irving Grose Tresnia and Gideon Harbour Mym and Lawrence Harding Peter Held Sir Michael and Lady Heller Joan Hurst Beverly and Tony Jackson

Ingrid and Mike Posen

Tamar Kollek

Simon Posen

Hannah and David Latchman

Janis and Barry Prince

Agnes and Edward Lee

Reed Smith LLP Ashley Rogoff

Lady Hannah and Lord Parry Mitchell Robin and Edward Milstein Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco Hanno D Mott Diana and Allan Morgenthau MutualArt.com Olesia and Leonid Nevzlin Susan and Leo Noé Opera Gallery, London Osborne Samuel Gallery, London

Anthony Rosenfelder Shoresh Charitable Trust Ann Susman Jonathan Symons Esther and Romie Tager Myra Waiman Judit and George Weisz Eva and David Wertheim Cathy Wills Alma and Leslie Wolfson Sylvie and Saul Woodrow Matt Yeoman

Ben Uri International Advisory Board UK

ISRAEL

NORTH AMERICA

Dr. Brian Allen, Hazlitt Group

Dr. Andrew Renton, Gallerist

Prof Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Scholar

Prof Bruce Boucher, Director

Dr. Shulamith Behr, Courtauld

Sir Norman Rosenthal, Curator

Shlomit Steinberg, Curator

Tom L Freudenheim, Writer

Sir Anthony Caro, Sculptor

Sir Nicholas Serota

EUROPE

Derek Gillman, Director

Dr. Richard Cork, Art Historian

Brian Sewell, Critic

Joel Cahan, Director

Dr. Evelyn Silber, Historian

Dr Eckhart Gillen, Curator

Prof Sander Gilman, Scholar

Peyton Skipworth, Writer

Dr Leo Paviat, Director

Gill Hedley, Curator Norman Lebrecht, Writer Prof Griselda Pollock, Scholar

Dr Danielle Spera, Director Edward van Voolen, Curator

Susan T Goodman, Curator Daniel Libeskind, Architect Prof Jack Lohman, Director

A Consistent Vision

115

Catalogue of works Early Works

Old Man with a Hat

Plaster

Life size

c. 1951

Figure of Unknown Man

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1960

Figure Bending Forward

Plaster

Life size

c. 1954

Figure Stretching Backwards

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1954

African Head Male

Clay

Life size

c. 1958

Female Prostitute

Clay

Life size

c. 1954

Seated Woman Profile

Plaster

Life size

c. 1957

Madonna

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1963

Unknown Female Figure

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1956

Stretching Cat

Bronze

17.5 x 35.5 x 25.5cm

c. 1956

Stretching Cat Drawing

Pen

15 x 13cm

c. 1956

Jeff, model for The Travertine Carving

Travertine Marble

Life size

c. 1959–62

Jeff, model for the Travertine Carving

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1959–62

Luisa Javarone Portrait

Stone

Life size

c. 1960

Grief Portrait

Plaster

Life size

c. 1956

Portrait of Scott Med’s Daughter

Bronze

Life size

c. 1964

Luisa Javarone Portrait

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1960

Greyhound Commissioned Relief

Bronze

Unknown Dimensions

c. 1962–65

Man Looking Up

Clay

Life size

c. 1965

Man Looking Down

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1962–65

Man Looking Up

Clay

Life size

c. 1965

Smiling Head

Plaster

Life size

c. 1967

Man Looking Down Profile

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1962–65

Twisting Man With Arms Outstretched

Ciment fondue

Life size

c. 1962–65

Crying Madonna

Marble

Life size

c. 1962–64

Boy From Antigua Rome Scholarship winner

Clay

Life size

c. 1958

Painting, Winner of First Prize for Composition, The Slade School of Art 1955

Oil

155 x 140cm

Cissie with Curlers, The Artist’s Mother

Bronze

25.5 x 20.5 x 17.5cm

The Artist’s Father

Bronze

115 x 76 x 51cm

Cissie The Artist’s Mother

Ciment fondue

Life size

Alice in Wonderland

Bronze

102.5 x 52.5 x 58cm

1966

The King from Alice in Wonderland

Bronze

Dimensions unknown

1966

The Duchess from Alice in Wonderland

Bronze

28 x 20 x 22.5cm

c. 1966

Alice in Wonderland 2

Bronze

Dimensions unknown

c. 1966

The Cook from Alice in Wonderland

Bronze

28 x 25 x 18cm

c. 1966

The Dance of Lily Pier

Bronze

125.5 x 32.5 x 135cm

Dancing Figures 2, The Dance of Lily Pier, Crouching

Bronze

76 x 46 x 79cm

c. 1968–71

Lily Dancing

Bronze

130 x 135 x 51cm

c. 1968–71

Portrait of Lily Pier

Bronze

25 x 20 x 16cm

Lily Pier

Photograph

Anguished Heads 7

Bronze

Dimensions unknown

c. 1968–71

Anguished Heads 5

Bronze

25 x 17.5 x 17.5cm

c. 1968–71

Prizes

Mother And Father

Alice In Wonderland

Lily Pier And Anguished Heads

116 A Consistent Vision

1955

c. 1978 1963 c. 1955

1968–71

1968–71 c. 1966

Anguished Heads 1, Shouting Man

Bronze

25 x 17.5 x 17.5cm

c. 1968–71

Anguished Heads 9

Bronze

25 x 17.5 x 17.5cm

c. 1968–71

Anguished Heads 8, The Artist as a Boy

Bronze

35 x 55 x 18cm

c. 1968–71

Anguished Heads 6

Bronze

25 x 17.5 x 17.5cm

c. 1968–71

Anguished Heads 3

Bronze

25 x 17.5 x 17.5cm

c. 1968–71

Anguished Heads 4

Bronze

25 x 17.5 x 17.5cm

c. 1968–71

Cow’s Head

Bronze

51 x 64 x 69cm

c. 1972

Burano Bull, Turning, Small

Bronze

41 x 31 x 17cm

1998

Burano Bull, Head Up, Small

Bronze

26 x 36 x 18cm

1998

Burano Cow

Plaster

174 x 120 x 200cm

Procession of Oxen

Plaster

30 x 71 x 25cm

c. 1996

Burano Bull, Medium Size

Bronze

41 x 31 x 17cm

c. 1998

Procession of Oxen with Curly Tails

Bronze

30 x 70 x 12cm

1995

Calf

Bronze

89 x 38 x 100cm

Standing Calf 1

Bronze

120 x 115.5 x 33cm

c. 1973

Calf, Relief

Bronze

115 x 76 x 51cm

c. 1972

Standing Calf 3

Bronze

Life size

c. 1973

Standing Calf 2

Plaster

Life size

c. 1975

Burano Horse Small

Bronze

56 x 58 x 18cm

Horse skull

Cement

Life size

Date unknown

Horse

Plaster

Life size

c. 1963

Horse 1, Small

Plaster

One eighth life size

c. 1967

Horse Head with Neck

Bronze

51 x 56 x 23cm

c. 1970

Horse Head

Bronze

30 x 56 x 23cm

c. 1970

Donkey

Clay

63.6 x 23 x 35.5cm

c. 1985

Greyhound Billie

Ciment fondue

20 x 30 x 15cm

c. 1960

Carving of Greyhound Billie (unfinished)

Marble

15 x 35 x 4cm

c. 1965

Woman with Greyhound Dog

Plaster

Life size

c. 1967

Lilie Lurcher Portrait

Bronze

25.5 x 24 x 32cm

2003

Reg, Bull Terrier

Bronze

69 x 118 x 41cm

2003

Lilie Lurcher

Bronze

66 x 100 x 20cm

2006

Lilie Lurcher, open legs, head up, small

Bronze

20 x 81 x 40.5cm

c. 2008

Lilie Curled Up

Bronze

20.5 x 35.5 x 28cm

c. 2009

Plan and elevation of dog (Lurcher Lilie)

Charcoal, pencil and pen

Lilie, legs open, head down

Bronze

20 x 81 x 46.5cm

2009

Lilie Lurcher Rolling

Bronze

64 x 100 x 26cm

2012

Luisa Javarone, portrait carving

Marble

30 x 20 x 18cm

c. 1962

Sally, portrait

Bronze

25 x 20 x 23cm

c. 1970

Anne-Marie, torso

Bronze

56 x 38 x 305cm

c. 1970–72

Smiling Head

Bronze

35 x 225 x 18cm

c. 1970

Female Portrait for Figures on Chaise Longue

Plaster

Life size

c. 1970

Female Figures on Chaise Longue

Plaster

Life size

c. 1970

Unknown Woman Portrait with Blowing Hair

Plaster

Life size

c. 1970

Emily Hoffnung

Bronze

35 x 30 x 28cm

Phillipa Portrait

Bronze

Life size

Bulls, Oxen And Calves

Horses

Dogs

Portraits and Figures

1974

1973

c. 1972

2008

1976 c. 1976

A Consistent Vision

117

Portrait of Sian O’Keefe

Bronze

51 x 33 x 28cm

Figure Falling Backwards

Bronze

81 x 56 x 151cm

1979

Debbie Standing Figure

Bronze

171 x 153 x 81cm

c. 1980

Lolly Batty

Bronze

46 x 31 x 31cm

1979

African Girl

Bronze

35.5 x 17.5 x 23cm

1978

Old Man Stanhope

Bronze

73.5 x 79 x 53cm

1978

Old Man Stanhope, profile

Bronze

56 x 36 x 28cm

c. 1978

Baby’s Head The Artist’s Nephew

Bronze

22.5 x 18 x 15cm

c. 1973

Michele, The Artist’s Wife

Bronze

25 x 325 x 20cm

1979

Michele, The Artist’s Wife, Age 19

Bronze

35 x 28 x 18cm

1977

Michele Standing Pregnant

Bronze

173 x 46 x 21cm

1988

Michele The Artist’s Wife, torso

Bronze

79 x 48 x 30cm

1980

Baby Belle, The Artist’s Daughter

Plaster

Life size

Michele, The Artists’ Wife, pregnant

Bronze

79 x 48 x 48cm

1991

Life size

1995

Family

Michele Giving Birth

c. 1976

c. 1990

Dashiell, Age 3

Bronze

38 x 25 x 33cm

Belle, The Artist’s Daughter, Age 8

Bronze

122.5 x 28 x 58cm

Belle, The Artist’s Daughter, Age 12, with Plaits

Bronze

35.5 x 25 x 25cm

2001

Gabriel, The Artist’s Son, Age 6

Bronze

33 x 30 x 25cm

2001

Belle, The Artist’s Daughter, Age 14

Bronze

35 x 25 x 20cm

2004

Dashiell, Aged 10

Bronze

38 x 18 x 23cm

2002

Michelle As Woman Awakening

Bronze

58 x 63 x 30cm

2012

Woman Awakening Pregnant

Clay

58 x 140 x 76cm

2012

Gabriel, The Artist’s Son, Age 17

Bronze

41 x 205 x 23cm

2012

Dashiell, The Artist’s Son, Age 19

Bronze

38 x 30.5 x 30.5cm

2012

Torso of Belle with Skull

Bronze

81 x 71 x 38cm 2013

2013

Michele, The Artist’s Wife, Age 54

Bronze

40.5 x 43 x 28cm

2013

The Executioner

Bronze

152 x 86 x 46cm

1980

Death Cart, Figure with Arms Outstretched

Bronze

40 x 30 x 12cm

1994

Death Cart, Figure with Raised Arms

Bronze

79 x 48 x 48cm

circa 1984

The Death Cart

118 A Consistent Vision

1995 c. 1997