Bernard Meadows
Born 19 February 1915
Died 12 January 2005
Active: 1934 - 1995
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, painter, teacher
Born Norwich. Studied at Norwich School of Art 1934-36; Royal College of Art 1938-40. Assistant to Henry Moore 1936-39 and 1946-48. Served in Dover, India, Ceylon and Cocos Islands in Royal Air Force 1941-46. Awarded Italian State scholarship 1956. Taught at Chelsea School of Art 1948-60; Bath Academy of Art. Professor of Sculpture at Royal College of Art 1960-80. Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art 1980.
Commissions include : Festival of Britain 1951; bronze sculpture for school for Hertfordshire Education Committee 1954; Fallen bird for Bumpus Bookshop, Baker Street, London 1958; Bowmansgreen School, London Colney, Hertfordshire 1954; Crown Woods School, Eltham, Kent 1959; Spirit of Trade Unionism 1958, Congress House, London.
Exhibitions include : VB 1952; Institute of Contemporary Arts 1952; Gimpel Fils 1957, 59, 63 (solos) and subsequently; LCC 1957, 60; BC 1956; BCSP 57; SPB 1958; Brussels International Fair 1958; Pittsburgh 1958; AC 1960, 61; Middelheim, Antwerp 1953, 59; Sonsbeek, Arnhem 1958; Kassel Documenta II 1959; Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York 1959 (solo).
Collections include: Tate Gallery; Arts Council; British Council; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Storm King Sculpture Park, New York.
Further reading : A. Bowness and P. Curtis, Bernard Meadows: Sculpture and Drawings, (London: The Henry Moore Foundation/Lund Humphries, 1995).
P. Curtis, Bernard Meadows, Sculpture and Works on Paper: An 80th Birthday Survey, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1995, (exh. cat.).
W.J. Strachan, ‘The Sculptor and his Drawings II : Bernard Meadows’, in The Connoisseur, April 1974.
Biography from Whiteley (2001) and additional information from Raikes (2009)
Wealth at death: £233,892 0s. 0d.
Probate date: 24 June 2005
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
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Black Crab
1951 - 1952
Personal and Professional Connections
Studio assistant to Henry Spencer Moore
1936 - 1949 (Circa)
The working relationship lasted around fifty years (see Raikes (2005)
Sources
Directory of sculptors working and exhibiting in Britain in the 1950s, by Gillian Whiteley
2001
pp. 23-4
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Sophie Raikes, ‘Meadows, Bernard William (1915–2005)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/94583, accessed 25 July 2010]
Citing this record
'Bernard Meadows', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=ann_1280066444, accessed 28 Sep 2023]
