Raymond Mason (sculptor)
Raymond Mason (b. 1922 in Birmingham and death 13 / 02 / 2010) England) was a sculptor.
He trained at the Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts under William Bloye, the Royal College of Art (for one term), and Slade School of Art. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1946. He was a close friend of the late Nobel Prize winning scientist Maurice Wilkins.
He is known for his sculptures of tightly packed people made from clay, with works on McGill College Avenue in Montreal; the Tuileries, Paris; Georgetown, Washington, D.C.; and Madison Avenue, New York. His controversial 1991 work, Forward! in Birmingham's Centenary Square was destroyed by arson on 17 April 2003. The statue carried a reference to DNA ("the secret of life") in connection with Maurice Wilkins, who went to school in Birmingham and worked at the University of Birmingham.
He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to sculpture and to Anglo-French relations in the New Year Honours 2002.
Raymond Mason died 13th February 2010
Bibliography
- Mason, Raymond (2003) At Work in Paris - Raymond Mason on Art and Artists. Thames And Hudson. ISBN 0-500-51114-4
- Edwards, Michael (1994) Raymond Mason. Thames And Hudson. ISBN 0-500-09245-1
- George T. Noszlopy, edited Jeremy Beach, Public Sculpture of Birmingham including Sutton Coldfield, 1998, ISBN 0-85323-692-5