Raymond Mason (sculptor)
Raymond Grieg Mason OBE (2 March 1922, in Birmingham, England – 13 February 2010 in Paris, France)[1] 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 lived and worked in Paris beginning in 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 the subject of an episode of the BBC television series "Omnibus", The Return of Raymond Mason, broadcast on 28 November 1982,[2] and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to sculpture and to Anglo-French relations in the 2002 New Year Honours.
Raymond Mason died 13 February 2010.[3]
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
References
- ^ Grimes, William (2010-02-25). "Raymond Mason, Sculptor Who Focused on Street-Level Drama, Is Dead at 87". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
- ^ "BBC One London, 28 November 1982 22.05: Omnibus". Radio Times. 237 (3081). BBC: 42. 25 November 1982.
- ^ http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesonline-uk/obituary.aspx?n=raymond-mason&pid=139860744
External links
- Birmingham City Council - page on Forward! sculpture
- BBC news story on the arson attack on Forward!
- Raymond Mason - Daily Telegraph obituary
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1922 births
- 2010 deaths
- English sculptors
- English male sculptors
- Alumni of Birmingham Institute of Art and Design
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands
- 20th-century British sculptors
- British male sculptors
- 21st-century British sculptors
- English expatriates in France