Frank Graeme Martin
Born 27 December 1914
Died 19 January 2004
Active: 1947 - 1979
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, teacher
Born at Torbay, St Chad's Avenue, North End, Portsmouth. Martin attended Portsmouth Art School and the Royal Academy Schools, London, where he became studio assistant to the sculptor William McMillan. A big man with a well-developed physique, McMillan used Martin as the model for the figure of Triton on the fountains he produced for Trafalgar Square.
During the Second World War, Martin served in the Royal Marines and was mentioned in despatches during the Italian campaign. After the war he completed his studies, working mainly in stone and terra cotta. In 1952 Martin was appointed head of sculpture at St Martin's School of Art where he remained for the next twenty-seven years. He significantly expanded the department and greatly enhanced its status through the staff he recruited. Amongst his early appointments were: Anthony Caro, Eduardo Paolozzi, Elizabeth Frink and Robert Clatworthy.
Martin lived by the sea for most of his life and served as an inshore rescue worker. He died at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
(Includes information from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/mar/02/guardianobituaries.education and http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/frank-martin-549423.html (accessed 25 May 2010)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Won prize Landseer Scholarships (Royal Academy of Arts), 1884-1950
1948
Two years
Institutional and Business Connections
Associate member of Royal Society of British Sculptors
1951
Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, 1965-81
Studied at Royal Academy Schools
1947 (Presumed) - 1950 (Presumed)
Awarded two prizes in 1947: a Landseer Prize of £10 and silver medal, for two models of busts from the life, and a £10 prize and silver medal for a model of a medal or coin. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1947', (1948), p. 30. Martin was awarded a two year Landseer Scholarship for sculpture in 1948. He resigned from the scholarship at Chistmas in that year. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1948', (1949), p. 26. Martin won a £30 Landseer Prize and silver medal for two models of a figure from the life. See 'Annual Report, 1950', (1951), p. 45.
Personal and Professional Connections
Nominated by Richard Alfred Thomas
1951
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Nominated by Charles Walter Edward Lewis
1951
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Sources
List of Members: Royal Society of British Sculptors
2008
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Anthony Caro, ‘Martin, Frank Graeme (1914–2004)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008; online edn, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/93474, accessed 11 Oct 2010]
Royal Society of British Sculptors. Annual Report of the Council, for the Year Ending 31 December 1951, to be Presented at the Forty-Eighth Annual General Meeting, 1952
February 1952
p. 3.
Citing this record
'Frank Graeme Martin', 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_1264423870, accessed 28 Sep 2023]
