William Turnbull
William Turnbull (born January 11, 1922 in Dundee , Scotland , † November 15, 2012 ) was a British sculptor and painter . He was considered an important representative of modern abstract sculpture.
life and work
Turnbull worked from 1939 to 1941 as an illustrator for a publishing house in Scotland. He then served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II . From 1946 to 1948 Turnbull studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. From 1948 to 1950 he lived in Paris . There he came into contact with Eduardo Paolozzi , Constantin Brâncuși and Alberto Giacometti .
In 1952 he was one of the young British sculptors at the 26th Venice Biennale . From 1953 to 1961 he was visiting professor at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and from 1964 to 1972 professor of sculpture there.
In 1960 Turnbull married the Singapore- born sculptor and graphic artist Kim Lim, with whom he has two sons. With her he made extensive trips to East Asia; In 1984 both exhibited together in their hometown at the National Museum Art Gallery . A recurring theme for him was dealt with in the Gates Series : the symbolic large gate found in East Asian temples and pagodas.
Turnbull's sculptures are made of wood, stone or bronze and their materiality always relates to nature. His sculptures are influenced by surrealism and American color field painting . They are characterized by a radical simplification of form.
Important exhibitions
(Selection)
- 1950 Hanover Gallery , London, " Aspects of British Art ", Institute of Contemporary Arts , London
- 1952 Participation in the Venice Biennale , in the British Pavilion with Robert Adams , Kenneth Armitage , Reg Butler , Lynn Chadwick , Eduardo Paolozzi and Bernard Meadows
- 1963 Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York City
- 1964 " Guggenheim International ", Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York
- 1968 4th documenta in Kassel
- 1972 " 20th Century Sculpture in Los Angeles Collections ", UCLA Galleries Los Angeles
- 1973 Tate Gallery , London
- 1984 National Museum Art Gallery, Singapore
- 1986 " Forty Years of Modern Art 1945-1985 ", Tate Gallery , London
- 1992 " 4 Sculpteurs Anglais: Armitage, Caro, Chadwick, Turnbull ", Artcurial Paris
- 1992 Michael Haas Gallery, Berlin
- 1995 Serpentine Gallery, London
- 1996 " un siècle de sculpture anglais ", Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume , Paris
- 1997 " Surrealism and After: The Gabrielle Keiller Collection ", Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art , Edinburgh
- 2001 Waddington Galleries, London
- 2002 William Turnbull: Sculptures , Galerie Thomas, Munich
- 2004 Waddington Galleries, London
- 2005 Yorkshire Sculpture Park , Yorkshire
- 2006 Tate Britain , London
- 2007 Waddington Galleries, London
Literature and Sources
- Exhibition catalog for the IV. Documenta: IV. Documenta. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: (Painting and Sculpture); Volume 2: (Graphics / Objects); Kassel 1968
- Exhibition catalog: William Turnbull: Sculptures , Galerie Thomas, Munich
- Kimpel, Harald / Stengel, Karin: documenta IV 1968 International Exhibition - A Photographic Reconstruction (series of publications from the documenta archive); Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9
Web links
- Literature by and about William Turnbull in the catalog of the German National Library
- Materials by and about William Turnbull in the documenta archive
- Examples of his work
Individual evidence
- ↑ William Turnbull dies, aged 90 ( Memento from November 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ tagesspiegel.de : The Scottish sculptor - William Turnbull is dead
- ↑ williamturnbullart.com: William Turnbull - Biography (accessed July 18, 2015)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Turnbull, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British sculptor and painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 11, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dundee , Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 15, 2012 |