Peter Nicholas Hide (born 15 December 1944, in

Carshalton Carshalton ( ) is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated around southwest of Charing Cross and around east by north of Sutton town centre, in the valley of the Rive ...

, Surrey) is an English born abstract sculptor."Peter Hide, A Sculptor's Life," Hagios Press, 2016 A one-time pupil of Sir

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 ...

, Hide is best known for upright, large-scale welded sculptures made of heavy, rusted industrial scrap steel. Peter Hide works in the Modernist assembled sculpture tradition begun by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and continued by David Smith and

, but with an emphasis on weight and pressure unlike his artistic forebears. Like his mentor Caro, Hide's sculptures forsake the

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

, but against Caro's open weightlessness, Hide reclaims mass and the monolith, connecting his work to inspirational sources in

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

and Brâncuși. "''I think a lot of sculptors,''" Hide says, "''especially those who were taught by Tony Caro, decided deliberately to move as far away as possible so as not to be seen as his disciples. The problem is that if you do that you move away from extremely fertile territory.''

Early life

Peter Hide was born to Gordon Walter Hide and Clarice Marna Ashcroft in 1944, the first of their four children. For two years, Hide attended Wallington Independent Grammar School, and in 1960 began a course in market gardening, with plans to attend horticultural college. A year later, Hide gave up his gardening course, and enrolled full-time as a student at Croydon College of Art. From 1964 to 1967, Hide studied sculpture under Anthony Caro at

St. Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...

, and attracted the attention of the critic Clement Greenberg. After studying with Caro, and working part-time for him as an assistant, Hide set up studio at Stockwell Depot in 1967, where he went on to organise a series of important exhibitions throughout the 70s, sponsored by the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

. From 1971 to 1978, Hide taught sculpture at Saint Martin's.

Hide in Canada

Accepting an invitation from Douglas Haynes to teach at the University of Alberta in 1977, Hide decided to move far from the London art scene, to the frontier Canadian prairie city of Edmonton, giving him the freedom to develop his work on his own terms. Hide was active throughout the 1980s, exhibiting internationally and working at the early Triangle Artists' Workshops. According to a letter from 1983, Clement Greenberg thought Hide "''one of the three or four best sculptors working anywhere right now. Among British sculptors, I'd place him second only to Anthony Caro, and to no one in North America.''" In 1993, along with the painter Terrence Keller, Peter Hide founded the Edmonton Contemporary Artists' Society. In 1998, the

Edmonton Art Gallery The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies an building at Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittorf, and B. James Wensley, alt ...

held a 25-year retrospective of his work, ''"Peter Hide in Context."'' Hide exhibited sculptures in all four of the Royal Alberta Museum's outdoor '' Big Things'' exhibitions,Gilbert Bouchard, "Come to Expect 'Big Things'", Edmonton Journal, 19 July 2002Erik Floren, "Big Impressions", The Edmonton Sunday Sun, 28 July 2002Mike Berezowsky, "Sculpture Exhibit Gets a Big Response", Edmonton Examiner, 11 September 2002 and in 2008, the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop organised a special exhibition of five large works by Hide on the sculpture terrace at the

Royal Alberta Museum The Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) is a museum of human and natural history in Downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, located north of City Hall. The museum is the largest in western Canada with more than exhibition space and in total. The museum w ...

, ''"Peter Hide @ The RAM"''. Hide currently makes his home in

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, where he is married to painter Hilary Prince, and teaches as Professor and Head of the Sculpture Department at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. Peter Hide's art is represented in many important private and public collections throughout North America and Europe, including London's

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 ...

. Some of Hide's students from the University of Alberta have gone on to work in the medium of

welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, primarily by using high temperature to melt the parts together and allow them to cool, causing fusion. Common alternative methods include solvent w ...

steel sculpture with a 21st-century post-postmodernist aesthetic sensibility. These artists include Andrew French, Andrew Hellmund, Linda Maines,

Ryan McCourt Ryan McCourt (born February 23, 1975) is a Canadian artist best known for his sculptures.Terry Fenton, "Edmonton Sculpture: The Next Generation," Harcourt Expressed, Volume 12, Summer/Fall 2002 He lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Early life and edu ...

, Royden Mills, Robert Willms, and Tanya Wood.

References

External links

Peter Hide's Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hide, Peter 1944 births Living people 20th-century British sculptors 21st-century English sculptors 21st-century male artists English emigrants to Canada English sculptors English male sculptors Artists from Surrey Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art English metalsmiths 20th-century British artisans Assemblage artists Recycled art artists