William Tucker | |
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| Born | 28 February 1935 Cairo, Egypt |
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| Elected | Royal Academy, 1992 |
William G. TuckerRA (born 28 February 1935) is a modernist British sculptor and modern art scholar.
Tucker was born to English parents on 28 February 1935 in Cairo, Egypt.[1] In 1937, his family returned to England, where Tucker was raised. At theUniversity of Oxford he studied history from 1955 to 1958. He moved to London and studied sculpture both at theCentral School of Art and Design and atSaint Martin's School of Art,[1] whereAnthony Caro was teaching.
In 1961, while at Saint Martin's, Tucker edited the second issue of the student magazineFirst. Tucker's issue included answers to a survey of British sculptors regarding the nature of their practices, as well as an editorial outlining themes that would reoccur throughout his writings on sculpture, especially his belief that 'sculpture is another poetry, not painting's poor relation'.[2] It also citesThe Human Condition by philosopherHannah Arendt, which became a frequent point of reference for the artist.
In 1965 he was one of nine sculptors included in the important exhibitionNew Generation: 65 at theWhitechapel Gallery in London, and one of seven from that exhibition whose work was included in thePrimary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors exhibition at theJewish Museum in New York in the following year.[3]
Tucker spent two years as a Gregory Fellow at the Fine Arts Department of theUniversity of Leeds (1968–70) and represented Britain at the 1972Venice Biennale. In 1974 he publishedThe Language of Sculpture (Thames & Hudson, London), which was released in the United States in 1978 asEarly Modern Sculpture (Oxford University Press).
He moved to New York in 1978 and taught atColumbia University and at theNew York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. He received aGuggenheim Fellowship for sculpture in 1981 and aNational Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1986. Tucker became an American citizen in 1985. He served as co-chairman of the Art Program atBard College.[citation needed]
He was elected to theRoyal Academy of Arts in 1992.[4]
In 2010, Tucker was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award of theInternational Sculpture Center.[5]
In 2011, Tucker was elected an honoraryNational Academician,National Academy Museum, New York.
Recent one-person museum exhibitions includedTucker: Mass and Figure at theMuseo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao in 2015,[6] andWilliam Tucker at theKunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland in 2016.[7]
