Ivor Roberts-Jones RA
Born 2 November 1913
Died 1996
Active: 1932 - 1983
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor
Born Oswestry. Studied at Goldsmiths College of Art, London 1932-34 and Royal Academy 1934-38. Served in Royal Artillery, Burma 1939-45. Taught at Goldsmith’s College of Art 1946-73, Head of Sculpture from 1964. R.A. 1973. Awarded R.B.S. gold medal 1974. C.B.E. 1975. Important commissions include Winston Churchill Memorial in Parliament Square 1973.
There is a monograph on his work entitled 'Abstraction and Reality: The Sculpture of Ivor Roberts-Jones' by Jonathan Black, Philip Wilson Publishing, London, 2014.
Exhibitions include: Beaux Arts Gallery 1954, 57 (solo); John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1957-58; Sculpture 1961, Arts Council, Cardiff and tour 1961.
Commissions include: St. Francis for the Lady Chapel of Ardleigh Church, Essex; numerous portraits, especially writers including Somerset Maugham and Richard Rees.
Collections include: Tate Gallery; National Portrait Gallery, London; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
Further reading: Sculpture ’61, Arts Council Welsh Committee, touring Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth and Bangor, 1961, (exh. cat.).
Various authors, A Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Contemporary British Sculpture 1977, 2 June-4 September 1977, (exh. cat.).
Sculpture in a Country Park, Welsh Sculpture Trust, 1983.
Biography from Whiteley (2001)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Won prize Landseer Scholarships (Royal Academy of Arts), 1884-1950
1936
Two years; name given as Ivor Roberts-Jones.
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected ARA Royal Academy of Arts
24 April 1969 - 11 December 1973
Elected R.A. in 1973. See Popp and Valentine, 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), pp. 101-102.
Elected RA Royal Academy of Arts
11 December 1973
Elected senior R.A. on the 1 October 1989. See Popp and Valentine, 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), pp. 101-102.
Studied at Royal Academy Schools
11 December 1934 - December 1939
These dates are given by Popp and Valentine, in 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), pp. 101-102.
Awarded a £10 Landseer Prize and silver medal for a model from the antique, and a first Landseer Prize of £30 and silver medal for a set of three models from the life, in 1935. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1935', (1936), p. 50. In 1936, he won a first Landseer Prize of £20 and silver medal for two models of busts from the life, and a two year Landseer Scholarship for sculpture. See 'Annual Report, 1936', (1937), pp. 51-52.
Sources
Directory of sculptors working and exhibiting in Britain in the 1950s, by Gillian Whiteley
2001
pp. 29-30
Citing this record
'Ivor Roberts-Jones RA', 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_1254753801, accessed 15 May 2021]
