Meadows Geograph-685507-by-Fractal-Angel

Bernard Meadows (19 February 1915 – 12 January 2005) was a British modernist

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. Meadows was

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

's first assistant; then part of the Geometry of Fear school, a loose-knit group of British sculptors whose prominence was established at the 1952

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

; a professor of sculpture at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

for 20 years; and returned to assist Moore again in his last years.

Early life

Meadows was born in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, and educated at the City of Norwich School, After briefly training as an accountant in 1931, he attended Norwich School of Art and then in 1936 became

's first assistant at his studio then in Kent. He participated in the first

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

exhibition in London in 1936. He lived in

Chalk Farm Chalk Farm is a small urban district of north west London, lying immediately north of Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden. History Manor of Rugmere Chalk Farm was originally known as the Manor of Rugmere, an estate that was mentio ...

from 1937, assisting Moore in his new studio at Hampstead, and studied at the

(although his first application was rejected, due to his association with Moore) and at the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he initially registered as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

, but when

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

invaded the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1941, he withdrew his objection. He was called up to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

and worked in

air-sea rescue Air-sea rescue (ASR or A/SR, also known as sea-air rescue), and aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (AMSAR) by the ICAO and International Maritime Organization, IMO, is the coordinated search and rescue (SAR) of the survivors of emergenc ...

, serving for a time the

Cocos Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...

in the

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, where he was inspired by the large crabs.

Career

He returned to Moore's studio after the war, and helped Moore with his marble sculpture '' Three Standing Figures 1947'' and his 1949 bronze '' Family Group''. He went on to find acclaim. An

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

figure was exhibited in the open air sculpture exhibition at

Battersea Park Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea, London, Chelsea and was opened in 1858. The park occupies ...

in 1951, alongside the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

, which went to the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

. He exhibited in the British Pavilion at the

a year later, alongside a new generation of British sculptors, including

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

, Lynn Chadwick and

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi was born on 7 M ...

. Their angular artworks contrasted with the more rounded styles of their seniors,

and

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...

, and they were dubbed by art critic

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

as the " Geometry of Fear". He held his first solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in 1957, with four more in the decade to 1967. He also exhibited at the São Paulo Biennale in 1957, Documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959, and the 1964 Venice Biennale. He exhibited from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

and produced a stream of public and private art in Britain and beyond. His edgy pieces often based on animals and seemingly carved from shrapnel could imply

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

menace. Meadows' work titled ''Public Sculpture'', a controversial assembly of stone blocks and balls of dripping and dimpled metal, was commissioned for the ''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to ...

'' in 1968 at Prospect House, Norwich. It was Grade II Listed in 2018 and restored by its current owners, Alan Boswell Group, in 2022. The sculpture is on permanent display outside the building alongside an illustrated panel telling the story of Bernard Meadows and ''Public Sculpture''. Teaching commitments took precedence over his own work. He taught at Chelsea School of Art, the Bath Academy of Art (Corsham) and the

, where he was Professor of Sculpture from 1960 to 1980, teaching students including Robert Clatworthy and Elisabeth Frink.Peter Davies, Independent Obituaries, 17 January 2005
/ref> He was a member of the Fine Arts Commission from 1971 to 1976. He returned to assist Moore at Perry Green, Hertfordshire from 1977, after Moore's health started to fail, and continued to help his mentor's estate after Moore's death in 1986, becoming an acting director of the

Henry Moore Foundation The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...

. The

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barb ...

held a retrospective exhibition of Meadows’ work for his 80th birthday in 1995, with a second retrospective at Gimpel Fils in London, the first exhibitions of his works for 15 years. His most famous work is probably ''The Spirit of Brotherhood'' outside the TUC headquarters, Congress House in Great Russell Street, London.

Private life

He married Marjorie Winifred Payne in 1939. They had two daughters. He died in London.

Notes

References

Obituary
The Guardian, 15 January 2005

The Telegraph, 15 January 2005

The Independent, 17 January 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Meadows, Bernard 1915 births 2005 deaths People educated at the City of Norwich School Artists from Norwich English conscientious objectors English sculptors English male sculptors British modern sculptors Geometry of Fear Alumni of Norwich University of the Arts 20th-century British sculptors