Reg Butler

1913
- 1981

Born in Hertfordshire in 1913, Reg Butler initially trained as an architect at the Architectural Association in London (1933-1936), and became a lecturer there from 1937 to 1939. During the Second World War, Butler was a Conscientious Objector and established a small blacksmithing enterprise dedicated to repairing farm implements, thus securing exemption from active duty. In 1947, without any formal training, he began creating sculpture and, in 1948, became an assistant to Henry Moore. In 1950, he set up his own studio, and soon began teaching at the Slade School of Art, London. Butler rose to international fame in 1952, when his work was included in the acclaimed British pavilion at the XXVI Venice Biennale. The following year, he was awarded first prize in the much-publicised competition for the ‘Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner’. He became one of the best known sculptors of the 1950s and 1960s. Whilst Butler’s earlier sculpture owed much to the blacksmith’s craft, consisting largely of attenuated forged iron structures, he later embraced welding, which he somewhat facetiously described as ‘knitting with steel’, as well as bronze casting, devising his own bronze shell casting method. Throughout his career, the primary focus of Butler’s art was the human figure, which later became exclusively female.  Butler’s work can be found in most major collections around the world, including the Tate Gallery, British Museum, Hakone Open Air Museum, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Smithsonian Institution. Butler died in Hertfordshire in 1981.

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