Robert P. Kiddey
Born 21 May 1900
Died 1984
Active: 1926 - 1951
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, teacher, architectural sculptor
Born in Nottingham. Died at Hawtonville Hospital, Newark, Nottinghamshire. Kiddey studied at Nottingham School of Art before and after the First World War. He was appointed as a teacher of sculpture at Newark County Technical College in 1931 (or 1932) and taught there for fifty years. He made a number of works in the area, including: four carved stone panels for the exterior of the college, a frieze for Newark Rowing Club's boathouse, Devon Bridge, and a large wood carving, 'Flight into Egypt', for Southwell Minster.*
His family have submitted the following biographical note: "Robert Kiddey was a short, dapper man who wore a trilby and was a local celebrity. During WW1 he joined the Bantam Brigade as a motorcycle messenger, being too short at just over 5 foot to fight at the Front. Kiddey has many works in the former USSR including The Hermitage which [at the time of writing] is poorly catalogued making it hard to identify works in the collection. [When Kiddey was working] Socialist Realism was the order of the day. He exhibited at the Paris Salon several times. During one exhibition his work was stolen which infuriated him. Kiddey has works in the University of Nottingham, regional religious houses, and at Southwell Minster. As a committed atheist/socialist it is remarkable he won so many religious commissions. Newark was his home town and the Council has a massive set of stone relief panel figures which formed exterior decor on the now demolished Wilford Power station. He worked on the frieze and Left Lion on/in Nottingham's City Council building on Market Square. All of this work was attributed to Charles Else... Kiddey lived an aesthetic life in an unheated former school house and had a menage a trois, possibly sexless but who can tell? All we know is that the family were later pressed to visit 'Maude' in South London with gifts/flowers on his behalf who was then in a care home. She had obviously been a beauty in her youth. The family has donated several works by Kiddey and his full archive to Newark's Spotlight Gallery." The project is very grateful to the Kiddey family for submitting this evocative account of his life to the project.
*Information from 'News', 24 April, 1934, in the Nottingham Local Artists Card Index, City Archives, Nottingham and Newark Advertiser http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/featurecontent/history/tim-warner/warner99.asp]
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Noel Dilks
1926 (Presumed)
The Christ
1927 (Presumed)
Jude the Obscure
1928 (Presumed)
East
1930 (Presumed)
The Death of the First-Born
May 1930 (Presumed)
Gassed
1930 (Presumed)
Torso
1931 (Presumed)
Dying Sculptor
1931 (Presumed)
Combat
1931 (Presumed)
Modern Motherhood
1931 (Presumed)
Peasant Mother
1932 (Presumed)
Famine
1932 (Presumed)
Indian Head
1932 (Presumed)
Hollie
1933 (Presumed)
Torso
1949 (Presumed)
Robin Hood
1949 (Presumed)
Jacqueline
27 June 1949 - 7 August 1949
Repose
1951 (Presumed)
Locations
Address 12 Ford Street St. Mary's Nottingham England | View on map
1926 (Circa) - 1930 (Circa)
Address Devon House Newark England | View on map
1930 (Presumed) - 1933 (Presumed)
Studio located at Studio, Market Place Newark England | View on map
1937 (Circa)
Studio located at Studio, Town Wharf Newark England | View on map
1939 (Circa) - 1947 (Circa)
Studio located at Studio, King Street Newark England | View on map
1948 (Circa) - 1951 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1926
'Noel Dilks'
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1927
'The Christ'
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1928
'Jude the Obscure '
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1930
Multiple works
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1931
'Modern Motherhood'
Exhibited at Nottingham Artists To-Day, 1949
'Jacqueline'
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1932
Multiple works
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1933
Multiple works
Exhibited at Exhibition of Works by Local Artists (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1951
'Repose'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1930 - 1948
Exhibited 7 times, one work each year (a torso in alabaster in 1947, otherwise all reliefs in wood, one possibly in stone)
Descriptions of Practice
Listed under Sculptors Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1941 Kelly'sTrade Directories
1941
Sources
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, June 1932
June 1932
Unpaged.
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, May 1933
May 1933
Unpaged (181).
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, May, 1926 Nottingham Society of Artists
May 1926
p. 27 (315).
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, May, 1927 Nottingham Society of Artists
May 1927
p. 35.
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, May, 1928 Nottingham Society of Artists
May 1928
p. 34.
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, May, 1930 Nottingham Society of Artists
May 1930
p. 18.
Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, May, 1931 Nottingham Society of Artists
1931
Unpaged.
Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1941 Kelly'sTrade Directories
1941
p. 1113.
Local Artists Index, Nottingham Nottingham Local Studies Collection, Central Library, Nottingham
See numerous entries in the card index for Robert Kiddey.
Nottingham Artists To-Day, 1949 Nottingham Society of Artists
June 1949
p. 22.
Works by Local Artists, 1951
July 1951 (Probable)
p. 17.
Citing this record
'Robert P. Kiddey', 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=msib4_1227270927, accessed 29 Sep 2023]