(Arthur) John Bridgeman
Born 2 February 1916
Died 29 November 2004
Active: 1930 - 1981
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, teacher, painter
Born at Felixstowe, Suffolk. His father was an non-commissioned officer in the military police who had served all over the British Empire. John was usually called 'Bridge' by his friends and signed himself John Bridgeman. He joined Colchester School of Art at the age of fourteen, studying under Barry Hart and Edward Morss. Bridgeman was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art (RCA), however his studies were interrupted by the war when, as a conscientious objector, he served with rescue teams in Fulham. In 1945 he returned to the RCA and worked under Frank Dobson. Bridgeman won the Otto Beit award for sculpture in 1947 and graduated in 1949. He was appointed Rome Scholar in Sculpture (1950-51), but opted to stay in London to gain teaching experience at the RCA and to be with his wife and children.
In 1951 he worked as a letter carver for Misha Black's Design Research Unit, and contributed large panels of marine life to the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain, he was also appointed head of sculpture at Carlisle College of Art. Five years later (1956) Bridgeman succeeded William Bloye as Head of Sculpture at Birmingham College of Art, where he remained until retirement in 1981. Among his students were: Saleem Arif, Barry Flanagan and Harvey Hood.
Bridgeman's commissions included: a life-size figure of a glass-worker, Pilkington Glass, St Helens; a group of tractor workers, Saville Tractors, Slough; a life-size Icarus, Petrofina Oil, Waterloo, London; twenty large 'play sculptures' integral to new housing developments by the architects Shepherd Fidler Associates at Nechells Green, Lea Bank, Hawkesley Farm Moat, Turves Green and elsewhere in Birmingham; bronze Mother and Child, Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham (1968); Mater Dolorosa, Coventry Cathedral, Lady Chapel (1970); a cement fondue seated Mother and Baby, Birmingham Maternity Hospital (1972); tondo commemorating Sir Adrian Boult, the Birmingham Conservatoire; commissions for a number of parish chruches around Birmingham (Yardley, Stirchley, West Bromwich, and Rugby). His last major commission in bronze was a fountain for the headquarters of West Midlands Water, Walsall (1985-86).
In 1974 he co-wrote 'Clay Models and Stone Carving' with his wife, Irene Dancyger, a writer and journalist. After her death in 1983, he moved to Leamington Spa and took up working in wax. He died in Warwick.
These biographical details have drawn extensively on M.A. Michael's obituary for John Bridgeman in 'The Independent', 13 January 2005.
Institutional and Business Connections
Head of department at Birmingham Municipal School of Art, Central School
1956 - 1981
Bridgeman succeeded William Bloye as Head of Sculpture
Studied at Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School)
1945 (Circa) - July 1949
Bridgeman began his studies before the Second World War and resumed them c.1945. He graduated from the 'School of Sculpture' in the College's 1949 'Distribution of Diplomas' list.
Personal and Professional Connections
Student of (Herbert) Barry Hart
1930 (Circa)
Student of Frank Owen Dobson
1945 (Circa) - 1949 (Circa)
Sources
Royal College of Art, Distribution of Diplomas on Friday 8 July 1949
July 1949
p. 1.
The Independent
2004
'John Bridgeman Fiercely unconventional sculptor who eschewed London galleries', Thursday, 13 January 2005, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-bridgeman-486382.html?service=Print (accessed 28 April 2011)
Citing this record
'(Arthur) John Bridgeman', 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_1244817006, accessed 24 Sep 2023]
