Artists

Kenneth Armitage, R.A. (1916-2002)

Kenneth Armitage was born in Leeds, studied at the Leeds College of Art (1934-37) and afterwards at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, (1937-39). After serving in the army (1939-46), he taught at Bath Academy of Art until 1956. During this period he was also a holder of the Gregory Fellowship in Sculpture at Leeds University (1953-5).

He gained international fame during the 1950s. In 1952 Armitage was included in the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale and, during the same year, his first London solo show was held at Gimpel Fils. In 1956 he won the International War Memorial Competition in Krefeld, West Germany.

In 1958, Armitage was chosen, alongside Stanley William Hayter and William Scott, to represent Britain at the 29th Venice Biennale, where he won the David E. Bright Sculpture Prize.

A year later, in 1959, a retrospective of his work was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Major shows were also held at the Arts Council (1972); Artcurial, Paris (1985); and in 1996, an eightieth birthday show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Armitage's work is held in the Tate Gallery collection and in many other public collections worldwide.

Armitage was Visiting Professor at the University of Caracas, Venezuela, in 1964; artist-in-residence at City of Berlin Kunstlerprogram, 1967-69; guest teacher at Boston University, Massachusetts, in 1970; and visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1974-79.

Armitage was appointed CBE in 1969 and elected R.A. in 1994.

'Kenneth Armitage's sculpture is about people. How a gesture will reveal an emotion, how a movement declares an intention. How people appear to us, how they react to our presence, how we can lose contact with them altogether. The sculpture may be playful in feeling; it may be painful. We may smile; or turn away, almost in embarrassment. There is always a basic humanity, a concern for people on a very direct and forthright level that distinguishes Armitage's work from that of most sculptors today' (A. Bowness (intro.), Arts Council exhibition catalogue, Kenneth Armitage, 1972-3).

Select Bibliography

Exhibition catalogue, Kenneth Armitage: 80th Birthday Survey, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1996.
A. Bowness, exhibition catalogue, Kenneth Armitage, London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1959.
N. Lynton, Kenneth Armitage, Art in Progress series, Methuen, London, 1962.
T. Woollcombe (ed.), Kenneth Armitage Life and Work, The Henry Moore Foundation, Much Hadham, in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1997.