Rick Kirby
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Rick Kirby (born 1952) is an English sculptor born in Gillingham, Kent.[1] He started his career as an art teacher, before quitting after sixteen years to focus on his work. Much of his work is figural, reflecting an interest in the human face and form, and is primarily in steel, which he describes as giving a scale and "whoom-factor" not possible with other mediums.
Life and work
Kirby was born in 1952 into a naval family.[2] He was interested in art as a child, and went on to study it after high school.[3] From 1969 to 1970 he studied at the Somerset College of Art, and from 1970 to 1973 at the Newport College Of Art, from which he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts.[3][4] This education was both liberating and confusing, he said, and left him without an idea for the direction of his work.[3] From 1973 to 1974 he therefore studied towards an Art Teacher's Diploma at the University of Birmingham,[3][4] and spent the next sixteen years teaching art.[3]
During his time as a teacher Kirby's own artistic sense bent towards sculpture, and after sixteen years he quit teaching to focus on his work.[3] For the next three years he sculpted in stone, before a steel-working co-tenant asked him to try out his welder.[3] "Steel released me," as Kirby put it. "It gave me the ability to go huge, a scale that just is not possible with stone": a "whoom-factor!", as he called it.[3]
Kirby's oeuvre is largely figural,[2] reflecting a fascination with the human face and form that has persisted since his time working in stone.[3] His pieces range from one to ten metres high; his 2002 sculpture Sutton Hoo Helmet, modeled after the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial and unveiled by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, is 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) tall and 1.6 metres (5 ft 3 in) deep,[5] and weighs 900 kilograms (2,000 lb).[6]
Several of Kirby's pieces are displayed in the Palace of Westminster in London, and in Putney along the banks of the River Thames.[2] His works have been unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II,[2] Princess Margaret, and Prince Edward.[7]
Notable commissions
- Crouching Lady in Bardon Mill, 1997.
- Public sculpture in Castlemilk, Glasgow, as part of the district's Gateways and Landmarks project in 1999 (Kirby's first Bronze)
- Cross the Divide at the Main Entrance of St Thomas' Hospital, London, 2000.
- Sutton Hoo Helmet (pictured at right), Sutton Hoo exhibition hall, Suffolk, 2002[5]
- Formation (pictured above) in Ravenswood, Ipswich, 2003.
- Sculpture for South Woodham Ferrers Leisure Centre swimming pool, 2005.
- The Face at Wigan, 2008[8]
- 20th Century Head with others in the sculpture garden at Burghley House, Stamford
References
- ^ Hong Kong Art Tutoring 2013.
- ^ a b c d Bath Contemporary.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i ArtParkS.
- ^ a b Rick Kirby cv.
- ^ a b Cocke 2009.
- ^ Ipswich Star 2002.
- ^ Axle Arts 2015.
- ^ Qureshi, Yakub (19 April 2010). "Wigan's angel of the north". Retrieved 2 February 2018.
Bibliography
- "Artist of the Week – Rick Kirby". Hong Kong Art Tutoring. 18 February 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- Cocke, Richard (29 July 2009). "Sutton Hoo Helmet". Recording Archive for Public Sculpture in Norfolk & Suffolk. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - Kirby, Rick. "Rick Kirby – Curriculum Vitae". Rick Kirby Sculpture. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- "Rick Kirby". Bath Contemporary. Archived from the original on 11 October 2015.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - "Rick Kirby: 29 May – 20 June 2015" (PDF). Axle Arts. 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
- "Rick Kirby Sculptor Profile". ArtParkS International. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- "Sutton Hoo attraction moves closer". Ipswich Star. 26 February 2002. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
External links
- Glasgow, City of Sculpture
- Julia Stubbs, an Advanced Skills Teacher in Art & Design at William de Ferrers School, Essex.
- Montcoffer