Alan Thornhill
Encyclopedia
Alan Thornhill is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and sculptor whose long association with clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

 developed from pottery into sculpture. His evolved methods of working enabled the dispensing of the sculptural armature to allow improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

, whilst his portraiture challenges notions of normality through rigorous observation.

Biography

Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, he grew up in Fittleworth
Fittleworth
Fittleworth is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located seven kilometres west from Pulborough on the A283 road and three miles south east from Petworth. The village has an Anglican church, a primary school and one pub, the Swan...

, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, attended Radley College
Radley College
Radley College , founded in 1847, is a British independent school for boys on the edge of the English village of Radley, near to the market town of Abingdon in Oxfordshire, and has become a well-established boarding school...

, and then in 1939 went to New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

 to read Modern History
Modern history
Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline after the Middle Ages. Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period after the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution...

. In 1944 he returned to Oxford, having been released from the Army for conscientious objection. He obtained his degree, and spent a year in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 based in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, teaching English at Pisa University. He then stayed six months in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 undergoing Reichian therapy
Reichian therapy
Reichian therapy can refer to several schools of thought and theraputic techniques whose common touchstone is their origins in the work of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich...

, from which came the decision to try working with his hands.

In 1949 he was accepted for the pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 course at Camberwell School of Art under Dick Kendall and Nora Braden, followed by a year at Farnham
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...

 under Henry Hammond
Henry Hammond
Henry Hammond was an English churchman.-Early life:He was born at Chertsey in Surrey on 18 August 1605, the youngest son of John Hammond, physician. He was educated at Eton College, and from age 13 at Magdalen College, Oxford, becoming demy or scholar in 1619. On 11 December 1622 he graduated B.A....

 and Paul Barron
Paul Barron
Paul George Barron is an English former football goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeping coach at Nottingham Forest.-Playing career:...

, before moving in 1951 to Eastcombe, Gloucestershire, where Hawkley Pottery was set up at Toadsmoor. In 1958, frustrated by the repetition involved in making and selling pots, he started to gravitate towards claywork and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, and in 1959 moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, having found a property in Putney
Putney
Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

 which included a semi-derelict outbuilding that became his studio. His studio still remains there, although he is now largely based near Stroud
Stroud
Stroud a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.Stroud may also refer to:*Stroud, New South Wales, Australia*Stroud, Ontario, Canada*Stroud , Gloucestershire, UK*Stroud...

, Gloucestershire.

He first taught claywork at Kingston School of Art, Barking Regional College, Rush Green College of Further Education and then sculpture at Morley College
Morley College
Morley College is an adult education college in London, England. It was founded in the 1880s and has a student population of 10,806 adult students...

, London between 1970 and 1987, and at the former Frink School
Frink School
The Frink School of Figurative Sculpture was named after Elisabeth Frink , British Sculptor, and was a small intimate academy with a specific discipline of study closer in spirit to a master and apprentice structure than an educational institution...

 of Sculpture where he was a founder trustee and with a later teaching role (1995–2001).

Working methods

Devising his own way of working which dispensed with the traditional sculptor's armature, he began working with random clay elements, constructed of coarse clay with uniform thickness, so that sculpture could develop, be turned and incorporate subconscious impulses in building the work. The assemblage of clay elements was dried and slowly kiln fired, if necessary being cut up to accommodate to the size of kiln and then rejoined after firing. The simple impetus was the desire to produce another sculpture, yet the later resulting large works - part figurative, part abstract, came to echo pre-occupations for him at that time. The process of improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

 and avoiding pre-conceived ideas (and in his portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

ure, avoiding notions of normality through rigorous observation) continues to be taught through some of his own former pupils. His writings include notes about portraiture and the nature of the creative process.

Portraiture

His portraiture in public collections includes:
  • Hugh MacDiarmid
    Hugh MacDiarmid
    Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...

     (Christopher Murray Grieve) - purchased in 1978 for the Primary Collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London
  • Emanuel Shinwell (Manny, later, Lord) - Bronze head was purchased (accession number S.309) for the Collection of Glasgow City Art Gallery. in 1973.
  • A. S. Neill
    A. S. Neill
    Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish progressive educator, author and founder of Summerhill school, which remains open and continues to follow his educational philosophy to this day...

    , the renowned educationist of Summerhill School
    Summerhill School
    Summerhill School is an independent British boarding school that was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other way around...

     - Bronze heads are located at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
    Scottish National Portrait Gallery
    The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery on Queen Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. It holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. In addition it also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection...

    , Edinburgh and the American College of Orgonomy
    American College of Orgonomy
    The American College of Orgonomy was formed as a nonprofit institution by Dr. Elsworth F. Baker in 1968. The purpose of the College is to advance the scientific work in the science of orgonomy, originally developed by Dr. Wilhelm Reich.The A.C.O...

    , New York.
  • Tom Stoppard
    Tom Stoppard
    Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...

     - Bronze head is with the Stoppard papers in the reading room of the Harry Ransom Centre at the University of Texas.
  • Sydney Gordon Russell
    Sydney Gordon Russell
    Sir Gordon Russell was an English designer, craftsman and educationist.He came under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement from 1904 after his father had moved to Broadway in the Cotswolds to be hotelier at the Lygon Arms, through the Guild of Handicraft, the community of metalworkers,...

     - Bronze head is in the collection of the Gordon Russell Museum in Broadway, Worcestershire
    Broadway, Worcestershire
    Broadway is a village and civil parish in the Worcestershire part of the Cotswolds in England.Often referred to as the "Jewel of the Cotswolds", Broadway village lies beneath Fish Hill on the western Cotswold escarpment...

    .


Other eminent figures who sat included Enoch Powell
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...

, Christabel Bielenberg
Christabel Bielenberg
Christabel Bielenberg was a British writer who was married to a German lawyer, Peter Bielenberg. She described her experiences living in Germany during the Second World War in two books: The Past is Myself and The Road Ahead...

, Frank Cousins
Frank Cousins
Frank Cousins PC was a British trade union leader and Labour politician.He was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, and became a full-time official in the road transport section of the Transport and General Workers' Union in July 1938...

, Richard Rodney Bennett
Richard Rodney Bennett
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE is an English composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works...

, Michael Cardew
Michael Cardew
Michael Cardew, OBE, was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years.Cardew was the fourth child of Arthur Cardew, a civil servant, and Alexandra Kitchin, the eldest daughter of G.W.Kitchin, the first Chancellor of Durham University...

, Sir Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....

 and Basil Bunting
Basil Bunting
Basil Cheesman Bunting was a significant British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of Briggflatts in 1966. He had a lifelong interest in music that led him to emphasise the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud...

.

Public sculpture

Public works include Bond, purchased by the permanent collection of the Jerwood Foundation and presently at Jerwood Sculpture, Ragley Hall.

Nine large works now form the Putney Sculpture Trail
Putney Sculpture Trail
Putney Sculpture Trail encompasses nine sculptures by British sculptor Alan Thornhill which are permanently publicly sited along the south side of the River Thames to either side of Putney Bridge, in the borough of Wandsworth....

 along the River Thames at Putney
Putney
Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

 in the Borough of Wandsworth, formally opened in September 2008. Load has been on Putney Embankment since 1989.

Biographical film

A 40 minute documentary, produced by his daughter Anna Thornhill, Spirit in Mass: Journey into Sculpture, was released in 2008 with an award from Screen South and UK Film Council. This was launched in Oxford and subsequently appeared at the Appledore Visual Arts Festival 2008 and Chichester International Film Festival. Artist and writer Clare Carswell is interviewed in the film.

Portraits of Thornhill

Terracotta portrait heads of Alan Thornhill exist by former students of the Frink School
Frink School
The Frink School of Figurative Sculpture was named after Elisabeth Frink , British Sculptor, and was a small intimate academy with a specific discipline of study closer in spirit to a master and apprentice structure than an educational institution...

 of Sculpture Jon Edgar
Jon Edgar
Jon Edgar is a British artist born in Rustington, West Sussex in 1968, the grandson of British cartoonist Brian White. He direct-carves in wood and stone using methods of improvisation, and works in clay.-Biography:...

 and Sarah Smith, from sittings in Gloucestershire in 2004 and 2005 respectively. These are both featured in the film.

Henry Moore Institute Archive

The bronze sculpture, Walking and Talking and many of the files and papers relating to Thornhill's portraits were acquired in 2007 by the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, UK.

External links

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