Ronald Rae is a

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 ...

and graphic artist born in

Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...

, Scotland, in 1946. His large-scale granite sculptures are entirely hand-carved, and over the course of 58 years, he has carved 58 monoliths, many of which are in public and private collections throughout the UK, with one placed in the USA. Rae's sculpture exhibitions include

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

, London (1999–2002), 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 ...

, Wakefield (2002-04), and

Holyrood Park Holyrood Park (also called the King's Park or Queen's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, lo ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

(2006-08). Rae is a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Royal Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors (RSS) is a British charity established in 1905, which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, Lo ...

. In addition to his work in sculpting, Rae has created a vast body of graphic fine art, small sculptures, and 'found objects'. Exhibitions of his work have been held at the Maclaurin Gallery, the Ruiz Gallery in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Rozelle House, Cyril Gerber Fine Art, The Compass Gallery, Netherbow Gallery, 369 Gallery and the

Graves Art Gallery Graves Art Gallery is an art gallery in Sheffield, England. The gallery is located above the Central Library in Sheffield city centre. It houses permanent displays from the city’s historic and contemporary collection of British and European ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. One of Rae's inscribed books,

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

's 'Sagor', is in the permanent collection of the

National Galleries Scotland The National Galleries of Scotland (, sometimes also known as National Galleries Scotland) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the Nation ...

. Rozelle House, The MacLaurin Gallery and Edinburgh City Art Centre also hold examples of his work. Although a controversial figure at times for contesting with the art establishment over his Lion of Scotland, and having avoided formal education and any contact with the Royal Academies, Rae has attracted considerable praise for his expressionist and mythological works, with accolades from Cyril Gerber, David Alston and Stewart Conn. An artist monograph, 'Ronald Rae - An Inner Life', was published by Unicorn Publishing Group in November 2023. A major joint retrospective of Rae's work, together with that of his artist friend Gordon Cockburn, opened at Rozelle House in Ayr on 17 November 2023 and toured on to Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, then to the Baird Institute in Cumnock. A catalogue will was published for the exhibition.

Sculptures on Public Display

Rae's early religious cycle of five large granite sculptures, The Tragic Sacrifice of Christ, is in the collection of South Ayrshire Council. This group was unveiled by George Younger, Scottish Secretary, in 1979, at the same time as the Henry Moore 'Reclining figure' which South Ayrshire Council had purchased. In April 2009, Rae's eight-tonne sculpture ''Fish'' was installed on the waterfront at

Cramond Cramond Village (; ) is a village and suburb in the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the mouth of the River Almond where it enters the Firth of Forth. The Cramond area has evidence of Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman activity. In modern ...

after a successful fundraising campaign by the Cramond Community. The sculpture was carved from a 460 million-year-old granite stone in the grounds of Cramond Kirk over a period of eight months. In February 2008, the sculpture ''Fallen Christ'' was sited outside the MacLeod Centre on the island of

Iona Iona (; , sometimes simply ''Ì'') is an island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaeli ...

and dedicated to the memory of Jim Hughes a member of the Iona Community. Rae's largest work, The Lion of Scotland, is sited at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh. Other granite sculptures in public sites include ''O Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast'' at

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

Railway Station, and ''Abraham'' at the

Royal Edinburgh Hospital The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Morningside Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian. History The "foundational myth" has it that the hospital was founded by Dr Andrew Duncan, following the death of ...

, ''Return of the Prodigal'' at Aviva, Perth, ''Famine'' and ''Mark of the Nail'' at

St John's Church, Edinburgh The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Scottish Episcopal church in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is sited at the west end of Princes Street at its junction with Lothian Road, and is protected as a category A listed building. Backg ...

, ''The Good Samaritan'' at Riverside Park, Glenrothes, ''Sheep'' at Almond Valley Heritage Centre, Livingston, ''Sacred Cow'' at Victoria Quays, Sheffield, ''Insect and Celtic Cross'' at Erdington Railway Station, Birmingham, ''Hiroshima Departed'' at the Japanese Peace Park, Willen Lake, Milton Keynes, ''War Veteran'' and ''Animals in War Memorial'', ''The Cramond Fish'' at Cramond Waterfront, Edinburgh, and ''Baby Boar ''at Aberdeen Airport. A group of 12 granite sculptures is on public display at Creetown Whisky Bond. Other sculptures on public display, include: *War Veteran, Kemnay Granite, 1.5x1.5x0.9m, 1997, location:

Campbell Park Campbell Park is the name of the central park for Milton Keynes (England) and an electoral ward of the civil parish of Central Milton Keynes. (The nearby Campbell Park (civil parish) previously included the park but no longer does so. It did ...

, Milton Keynes *Animals in War Memorial, Granite, 1.5x3.4x0.9m, 1998, location:

, Milton Keynes *St Francis, Tillyfourie Granite & Basalt, 1.5 x 3.4 x 0.9m, 2015, location: Threave Gardens, The National Trust for Scotland *Insect and Celtic Cross, Granite, 1.5x1.8x1m, 1992, location: Erdington Train Station,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Portraits of Rae

Ronald Rae agreed to sit for sculptor

Jon Edgar Jon Edgar is a British sculptor of the Frink School. Improvisation is an important part of his reductive working process and developed from the additive working process of Alan Thornhill. Final works are often autobiographical, perhaps referenc ...

in 2011 as part of a new series of sculpture-related heads. This was exhibited at

in 2013 as part of the Sculpture Series Heads exhibition. Rae has also been photographed by celebrated portraitist

Anne-Katrin Purkiss Anne-Katrin Purkiss is a photographer, born in Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt), East Germany in 1959 and moving to Britain in 1984 after graduating from University of Leipzig in 1983. Her father Joachim Seyffarth (1928-2014) was a German curator of mon ...

, and these have been archived with the National Portrait Gallery and appear in her book containing a photographic record of British Sculptors.

References

External links

*Monograph: 'Ronald Rae - An Inner Life' Robert De Mey, 2023, Unicorn, ISBN 9781911397601
Illustrated web archive of works by Ronald RaePictures of granite stone sculptures by Ronnie Rae in Rozelle Park, Alloway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rae, Ronald 1946 births British sculptors British male sculptors Living people