+44 (0)207 373 8615
info@sculptors.org.uk
Dora House,

108 Old Brompton Road,

South Kensington,

London,

SW7 3RA

Due to COVID-19, Dora House will be closed as of Monday 23rd of March 2020

News

Blog

Creativity & Wellbeing Week 2020

18-24 May 2020: Positive Futures

19 May 2020

Creativity and Wellbeing week is run by London Arts in Health and the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance. The festival creates core partnership events, while encouraging and supporting organisations and individuals to organise their own activities. This year the festival is being held digitally,

Postponed exhibitions, azaleas and cuckoo clocks

By Gordon Watson, Trustee

14 May 2020

Our winter plans and preparations for Spring were never intended to be for lockdown, at least until we saw what was happening in Northern Italy in February. They have, though, helped us through this challenging time, especially as our garden has become our ‘creative space’ as well as our

Artists in lockdown

By Clare Burnett, PRSS

23 Apr 2020

Five weeks in and some days are better than others. I hope you are all managing ok, especially those of you who are shielding, home schooling, on your own or just finding it difficult. The night the lockdown was announced I realised I wouldn’t be able to use my studio which is in a communal block,

Collecting for the Archive

By Rosamund Lily West, Research Curator

16 Apr 2020

The archive of the Royal Society of Sculptors is housed at our headquarters in Dora House. It is an unique collection and has been documenting the workings of the Society and its members since our foundation in 1905. The archive consists of minute books, which are mostly handwritten and have

Be careful what you wish for

By Alex Harley, Trustee

08 Apr 2020

Be careful what you wish for. I honestly don’t think that I am responsible for this outbreak but just a few weeks ago, I dreamt of being able to have just two weeks solitary time in the studio. I wanted time to think, draw and mull over ideas for a new project and be away from all distractions. Now

Testing Time

By Fiona Campbell, Gilbert Bayes Award winner 2019-20

01 Apr 2020

While we are all learning how to live differently during this terrible pandemic - a worrying time for humanity - I’m trying to find positives in all this instability. It will undoubtedly change the world. On a micro scale, artists are having to re-adjust our practices and finances after cancelled

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Naomi Blake FRBS (1924-2018)

30 Mar 2020

Naomi Blake FRBS (1924-2018) became an Associate member of the Society in 1979 and a Fellow in 1993. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1924 into a large Jewish family, she spent the last nine months of the war in Auschwitz. During a march through a forest, she escaped with friends whilst being shot at. Her

Article: International Women’s Day 2020

By ROSAMUND LILY WEST, PAUL MELLON RESEARCH CURATOR

03 Mar 2020

International Women’s Day 2020 For International Women’s Day, I wanted to celebrate the women in the ‘Pioneering women at the heart of the Royal Society of Sculptors’ project, and the way women changed the perception of who – or what – a sculptor is. The project, funded by the Paul Mellon Centre,

Dora Gordine, Javanese Dancer/Oriental Dancer, (1927-28). Royal Society of Sculptors’ archive.

From the archive: Pioneering women

Dora Gordine FRBS (1895-1991)

26 Feb 2020

Dora Gordine became an Associate member of the Society in 1938, and was made a Fellow in 1949. Gordine was born in Latvia, and lived in Estonia, Paris and London. She settled with her second husband Richard Hare in Kingston at her home and studio Dorich House, designed by Gordine herself. Between

article: on the importance of a pen

By Grizedale Residency and Gilbert Bayes Award winner, Karolin Schwab

25 Feb 2020

Going to residencies has been a crucial part of my practice for a long time. Usually I try to take as little as possible with me. A few years ago I would always take a good book and at least a pen with me. What is an artist without a pen? However, I often find that I don’t use these things in the

Karin Jonzen, maquette for Mother and child. Installed on the London County Council’s Sydenham Hill estate in 1960.

From the archive: Pioneering women

Karin Jonzen FRBS (1914-1998)

12 Feb 2020

Karin Jonzen FRBS (1914-1998) was born in London of Swedish parents. She studied sculpture at the Slade under A. H. Gerrard. Despite Gerrard’s dislike of Greek sculpture, steering his students instead to Ancient Egyptian works, Jonzen became inspired by the sculpture of Ancient Greece upon visits to

Emmeline Pankhurst’s gravestone, red sandstone. Brompton cemetery, London

From the archive: Pioneering women

Eva Dorothy Allan FRBS (1892- 1996)

19 Dec 2019

Eva Dorothy Allan FRBS (1892-1996) changed her name to Julian Phelps Allan around 1929. Sources vary as to the explanation for this name change, and reasons suggested vary from wanting to be taken more seriously professionally; wanting to assert her identity publicly as a lesbian; or naming herself

Left Left (No No to Knock-Knocks) by Brian Griffiths

article: the importance of sculpture

By sculptor and Gilbert Bayes Award judge, Brian Griffiths

19 Dec 2019

I believe making sculpture is being caught up with things, a realisation that self and stuff is always mixed up. Sculpture sits in the world with us, it is an object like us. Nice. Sculpture is thinking with things, or considering how things think – contesting the distinction between thoughts and

Homage to the Square (Daniel and Me)_2019_Pizza Box and Used Condom_Photo_Tim Bowditch

ARticle: Mojo-ha, a second look at Mono-ha for today

By Guillaume Vandame

07 Nov 2019

Unexpectedly, I first became aware of Mono-ha after attending a talk on Jiro Takamatsu (1936-1998) at Asia House in autumn 2018. It’s a subject that in some ways has become more unfashionable than other art forms to emerge from Japan. It lacks the absurdity and messiness of Gutai, a contemporary art

Article: 'What is Japan?'

Michael Houlihan, Director General of Japan House London considers how the answer to 'What is Japan?' is constantly evolving

05 Nov 2019

Japan House London was honoured to lend its support to the Society’s latest exhibition Inside/Out: Jiro Takamatsu and Keiji Uematsu in Conversation. With Rugby World Cup this year, the Tokyo Olympics next, and the Osaka World Expo in 2025, Japan is very much on the agenda. At Japan House on

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Lady Kathleen Scott FRBS (1878-1947)

05 Nov 2019

Lady Kathleen Scott FRBS (1878-1947) was famous as the grieving widow of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the Antarctic explorer. However, she had a long and successful career as a sculptor, becoming an Associate of the Society in 1928 and a Fellow in 1946. She studied at the Slade School of Art in

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Josefina de Vasconcellos FRBS (1904 - 2005)

07 Oct 2019

Josefina de Vasconcellos FRBS (1904-2005) was the daughter of a Brazilian diplomat and English Quaker mother. In 1930, she married fellow artist Delmar Banner and they made Cumbria their home, adopting two sons, Billy and Brian. Vasconcellos had a lifelong love of children: she and Delmar had over

Article: The importance of copyright to artists

Naomi Korn Associates

27 Sep 2019

Naomi Korn Associates are specialists in copyright, data protection and licensing, helping clients manage their rights and privacy responsibilities and help artists, businesses, public sector organisations and charities manage their rights, simply. They are passionate about protecting the rights of

Article: The importance of data protection to artists

Naomi Korn Associates

17 Sep 2019

Naomi Korn Associates are s pecialists in copyright, data protection and licensing, helping clients manage their rights and privacy responsibilities. The below blog looks at the importance of data protection to artists. It has been over a year since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was

Article: Drawing and sculpture

Hannah Higham, Curator at the Henry Moore Foundation, considers the importance of drawing for sculptors

03 Sep 2019

This summer I was thrilled to see Henry Moore’s Woman on the sculpture terrace at Dora House. Its installation coincided with the Royal Society of Sculptors’ series of exhibitions Parallel Lines prompting a conversation between sculpture and drawing and including works on paper by Moore. In

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Rosamund Mary Beatrice Fletcher FRBS (1914 – 1993)

03 Sep 2019

Rosamund Mary Beatrice Fletcher FRBS (1914 – 1993) became an Associate member of the Society in 1945 and a Fellow in 1957, and she also served on the council of the Society. She followed her father, the painter Blandford Fletcher, towards an artistic career. However, her medium was not paint but

Article: The Yorkshire Sculpture International

Greville Worthington, Chair of Yorkshire Sculpture Park explores what is an exciting time for both contemporary sculpture and Yorkshire

02 Jul 2019

I feel lucky to have seen such interesting sculpture recently, both close to home, and further afield. I write before having looked at the submissions to the Royal Society of Sculptor’s annual summer exhibition, from which, as this year’s guest selector I will make my selection, but come to this

Cecil Thomas in the studio at Dora House

From the archive: Cecil Thomas: Soldier Sculptor

A new project

02 Jul 2019

Cecil Thomas: Soldier Sculptor is a National Lottery Heritage Funded project which will focus on the personal wartime experiences of Cecil Thomas FRBS (1885-1976), one of the Society’s most prestigious members whose papers, including his unpublished autobiography, are held in our archives, and whose

From the Archive: Pioneering Women

Lady Feodora Gleichen (1861 - 1922)

01 Jul 2019

Pioneering Women is a research project designed to shine a spotlight on the lives, careers and legacies of the talented and extraordinary women at the heart of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Each month in our Shape & Form enewsletter, our Research Curator, Rosamund Lily West will share with you

From the archive: The Festival of Britain

Rosamund Lily West, our Research Curator explores our involvement with the festival of 1951

24 Jun 2019

The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2019 is a three-day festival in South Kensington. The festival offers a programme bringing together the science and the arts, echoing the vision that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had for the 1851 Great Exhibition, two centuries on from their birth in 1819. The

Article: Great Exhibition Road Festival

Sarah Berresford, Marketing & Communications Manager for Discover South Kensington invites you to explore the extraordinary this summer

04 Jun 2019

Leading cultural venues are joining forces to recreate the spirit of the Great Exhibition of 1851 for the 21st century. Over one weekend this summer, South Kensington’s Exhibition Road will host a celebration of curiosity and discovery, with a new, free festival of art, science and culture. Running

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Barbara Tribe FRBS (1913 - 2000)

03 Jun 2019

Article: Illustrating Frink

Illustrator Olivia Lomenech Gill reflects on her first Elisabeth Frink encounter

15 May 2019

My first encounter with Elisabeth Frink’s work was an image of a horse in the downstairs toilet at a neighbours house. I went home and made a drawing on a large blackboard in white chalk. My father took a photograph of it. Of course, my unconscious chalk homage to Elisabeth Frink was nothing special

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Christine Gregory FRBS (1879 - 1963)

15 May 2019

From the archive: Pioneering Women

Our new archive research project

01 Apr 2019

My name is Rosamund and I am the new Research Curator here at the Society working on the ‘Pioneering Women’ research project, funded by the Paul Mellon Centre. Each month in our Shape & Form enewsletter, I would like to share with you something from the archive, and introduce you to some of the

Stephen Broadbent running a Masterpieces in Schools activity at a primary school in Chester. Photo credit: Art UK.

Article: Royal Society of sculptors partners with Art UK

Katey Goodwin, Deputy Director of Art UK announces it's new UK-wide sculpture project

27 Feb 2019

Art UK has started adding sculpture to their website as part of a unique UK-wide cataloguing project. The first thousand sculptures are now available online, free of charge, to people in the UK and all over the globe via www.artuk.org An estimated 150,000 more will follow by the end of 2020. These

From the archive: Alice Meredith Williams ARBS

Phyllida Shaw unveils the life and work of a little known sculptor

05 Feb 2019

‘Small of stature and delicate in appearance, with visionary eyes, she acquired amid the rigours of her student life a power of endurance which supported her in the heaviest work, and no obstacles deterred her undaunted spirit from carrying out an idea.’ This description of Gertrude Alice Meredith

Article: In partnership with Grizedale Forest

Hazel Stone reflects on the forestry Commission's centenary and recent collaborations with the Royal Society of Sculptors

15 Jan 2019

Entering a new year is often a time of reflection as well as a time of optimistically looking to the future and this is particularly so for the Forestry Commission as it celebrates it’s centenary in 2019. Originally set up following the First World War to restore the nation’s woods and forests and

Anne Acheson putting her finishing touches to a sculpture called October in the 1920s

From the Archive: Anne Acheson CBE FRBS

The legacy of a sculptor whose achievements in WW1 still perpetuate

31 Oct 2018

Anne Acheson (1882-1962) was a sculptor, born in Portadown, Co. Armagh. She studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, Kensington from 1906-1910. Subsequently her bespoke sculptures became popular in many houses and gardens. Her work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and she became the first

Article: The Intermediary Family by Bharti Kher

Dea Vanagan, Hauser & Wirth Director, reflects on Kher's new artwork for Frieze Sculpture 2018

04 Sep 2018

In July, Frieze Sculpture returned to the English Gardens of Regent’s Park in London for its seventh edition. Curated by Clare Lilley, Director of Programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 25 artists were selected through an open call by international galleries. With a mixture of existing and newly

Article: The Coffin Jump by Katrina Palmer

Helen Pheby, Senior Curator Yorkshire Sculpture Park discusses the park’s new 14-18 NOW installation

09 Jul 2018

The Coffin Jump by Katrina Palmer at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is inspired by the role of women in the First World War, particularly the all-female First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps). The artwork features a horse jump with texts written in response to the nurses’

Out Of Body

Exploring the differences between animate and inanimate

13 May 2018

I am fascinated by the interconnectedness of the human and non-human as a means of exploring our relationship with impermanence.

From the archive: Isaac Witkin (1936 - 2006)

Internationally renowned sculptor, Society member & Henry Moore's assistant

01 May 2018

Nadine Witkin, talks about her late father

Looking to the sky

With Turrell's Skyscape

03 Sep 2017

“Scientific perspective is nothing but eye-fooling illusionism; it is simply a trick - a bad trick - which makes it impossible for an artist to convey a full experience of space” (Braque) How many times have you looked into a rectangle today, and how many times have you looked through that frame

Encountering El Peine de los Vientos

by Eduardo Chillida in San Sebastian

23 Aug 2017

Leaving the Mirakontxa Pasealekus, I enter the promenade and walk in a westerly direction, the promenade narrows and in the distance I see El Peine de los Vientos; suddenly rock outcrops obscure the view and instead, deep visceral sounds are felt and heard. Continuing, the promenade leads to a

Exploring Sculpture in the City 2017

Powerful interactions with place

07 Jul 2017

In the densely-built labyrinth of the City of London, where I work, the Sculpture in the City exhibition each year causes at least a few bustling office workers (including me) to focus on a sculpture and its place in the environment. The best of this year’s works interact powerfully with their