 ohn Atkin is a world-renowned sculptor of monumental works who has completed several high profile public commissions throughout the UK, Ireland, Australia, China, USA, and U.A.E. Some of his most notable works are the 27-ton marble and granite sculpture Strange Meeting, produced for the Beijing Olympics and his steel and glass sculpture The Klansman, which will be placed in the world’s tallest building - The Burgh Dubai - upon its completion.
After earning a BA Honours at Leister Polytechnic, Henry Moore took a personal interest in Atkin’s work and offered to fund his further study at the Royal College of Art. Atkin was awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship and has been supported by the Australia
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John Atkin
NZ323135
2005
Stainless steel & corten steel
Height: 18 feet
Commissioned by Commissions North for city & Northern. |
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Council and the British Council, gaining numerous shows around Australia; including a major exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne, (formerly Heide Park & Art Gallery). This was followed by increased popularity in America and exhibitions in New York, Boston, San Francisco and New Orleans. His work has also been exhibited and supported by The Cass Sculpture Foundation, UK and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy.
John Atkin: I was born in Darlington, County Durham, England in 1959. I came from a working class background. My dad was in the Second World War, assigned to the Durham Light Infantry from 1939 to 1945. He did a variety of jobs after the war and my mother was a wage clerk. I did not come from an artistic background, and I have never really been pushed that way, but I have always thought very three-dimensionally. I remember when my father was working as a taxi driver he drove a Humber Hawk from the sixties which he did all the repairs on himself. It had a V-8 engine, and it would be jacked-up with pieces of the machine carefully laid out on the ground to be put back together, fixed and cleaned. The service manual was like the engineering version of the complete works by Shakespeare - an incredibly thick book filled with diagrams relating to all aspects of the car. It contained wonderful hand-drawn exploded view diagrams looking through engine parts, springs and carburetors. This introduced me to a unique three dimensional, engineered world and tapped into my interest in industrial forms and machinery.
Art Interview: What was your parent’s reaction when you told them you wanted to be an artist?
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John Atkin
The Signaler
2004
Corten, stainless steel, concrete
Height: 26 feet
Commissioned by Loughborough University - on behalf of Highland Metrobrook Developers
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John Atkin: I don’t recall ever declaring that I wanted to be an artist. It was never a question that cropped up. What you have to bear in mind was that I always drew and made things, and that process led me directly into becoming an artist. However, they were very supportive. From inventing through play, with Lego and Meccano I began to develop a firm platform for using drawing as an explorative tool for my imagination. As I moved from school to college my interest in art became more embedded and I profited enormously from contact with teachers who thoroughly understood the value of drawing and moreover, were able to communicate a range of techniques and methods that are now hardly taught at F.E and H.E. level. In fact, between the ages of 12 to 18 I was fortunate to have access to several really good teachers and I count myself very fortunate that this was the case. My art teacher at my Comprehensive School could see my interest in art and more particularly sculpture. He saw that my drawings were three-dimensional. He encouraged me to work with clay when no one else was allowed near it. Thanks to him, I was making a wide range of sculptures using clay and plaster at a very early age. Later in 1977 I earned a BA Honours at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) where I studied painting. However, it was in my 3rd year there that I took the lid off my very own Pandora’s box to discover a whole host of different ways of exploring subject matter other than that of two dimensions.
Having met and profited from being funded by Henry Moore to attend the Royal College of Art between 1982 -1985, I was then awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship in Sculpture at Kingston University. This was one of only three such Awards that were available in London at the time; so I counted myself very lucky to have secured another year where I could further develop my interest in art. I finished the Royal College of Art in 1982 and started the Picker Fellowship in 1985.
Art Interview: What were the differences between Royal College of Art and Leicester Polytechnic?
John Atkin: Leicester Polytechnic is where I really built up an interest in painting. During the first two years, I focused on the industrial landscape of the Northeast of England. The works I made during the first two years of my B.A. Course concentrated on the urban and rural landscape of the North East of England and particularly the areas around Darlington and Barnard Castle, where I was born and brought up. I was fascinated by the interface between the rural landscape and the industrial landscape, particularly the edges of towns where the industrial heartland met the ancient topography of the land. Many of my drawings were big collage compositions that were made from a matrix of different sketches of different places and spaces. In my third year I felt I reached a plateau in terms of what I could get out of this method of working.However, its interesting to look back at that time and realize how much of the character and personality of those landscape influences are still part of my work, even though the subject matter has changed.
At that time there was a great deal of very tough social upheaval within my family. So, instead of looking only at industrial landscapes, I began looking into this bleak environment and the relationship between my mother and father. I began putting together films that depicted the silent social stalemate between the two of them. As the film work developed, which involved observation of my parents’ habits and routines, I began to explore other ways of examining this subject matter. Writers such as Harold Pinter and sculptors such as Edward Kienholz were shaping my ideas.
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John Atkin
The Room
Installation - newspaper, wood, plaster and mixed media
10 x 11 feet
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John Atkin
Watchman for the Morning
Paper, card, wire, roofing felt, plywood, rope, paint
Height: 2 meters |
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The first piece I made was called “The Room”, which was an environment 10 x 11 feet. It was made with newspaper walls. Inside were two life-sized plaster and mixed media figures that were based on my parents. Their positions within the room prevented anyone from entering the room. Viewers had to go around the perimeter of the newspaper-lined walls and peer through tiny peepholes that I had placed in different spots to view into the gloomy interior. Because of this deliberate ploy of observation, the space had a painterly perspective; allowing only fixed views into the tableaux, framing each view, similar to ways by which a painter might select the best aspect of a scene as subject matter for painting.
Out of that work a series developed of charcoal and collage drawings based on my mother and father together with 6 ½ feet tall sculptures based on observations of my parents’ heads. These head sculptures were made from roofing felt, rope, wire, string: anything I could find in the garbage skips located outside the Natural History Museum at Queens Gate. They threw all sorts of things away and many students, me included, would forage through them to find interesting artifacts and materials for sculptures. In a sense this was the beginning of my interest in the Objet Trouvé tradition as well as collage and assemblage. It fitted well with my established pattern of working when making drawings.
When my parents fell ill with cancer I was the finals stage of my degree at Leicester and working on drawings and ideas for sculptures in animprovised studio. Interestingly the studio was located within the garage that my father had kept his Humber Hawk. The space was filled with the smell of oil and the surroundings littered with the tools he had assembled to fix and repair the car. It was a difficult time where caring for my parents and making art was not always mutually compatible. They died within a couple months of each other towards the end of summer and beginning of autumn. After my parents passed away, I went to New York City. While I was there I was offered a place in the Sculpture Department of Columbia University to work toward a two-year MFA. This proved to be too expensive and I returned home to the North East of England to try to figure out a strategy for working. Inevitably this meant another layer of education and as it turned out, this manifested itself at the RCA in London. Looking back, it was the best thing to have happened, because I had the opportunity of three years to develop as opposed to two years at Columbia.
In my youthful ignorance, I wrote to Henry Moore and sent him some pictures of my work and asked if he could help towards the costs of an MA course, in the US. One afternoon Mrs. Tindsley, Henry Moore’s secretary, called me and explained she was ringing on behalf of Henry Moore. She asked if I would be interested in meeting him to discuss potential funding opportunities. At first I couldn't believe my luck because things had been so bleak - perhaps this was the start of a turnaround in my fortunes. I went to Much Hadham and showed him more of my drawings, pictures and sculptures and although I did not have very much in terms of sculptures, he told me he would like to help fund my education. I was very aware of this huge Foundation and explained it was very kind of him but wondered if all of it had to go through the Trustees of the Foundation. I asked if it went to a council meeting if it was likely to get torpedoed. He leant forward in his well worn padded chair, looked me in the eye and said, “Whose money do you think it is?”
Henry Moore felt I would develop more from three years at the Royal College of Art than two-years at Columbia University. One of his previous assistants Phillip King was a Professor at the RCA and Moore thought he might like to give me a chance to get in! I arranged an interview with Phillip at the Royal College of Art and he liked my work but explained that he had already taken on an acceptable quota of students for the year I was applying for. He asked me how I had planned to pay for my tuition and I explained about meeting Henry Moore. With a look of incredulity Phillip excused himself and went to the phone. He came back and said, “I’ve spoken with Henry and he said that if I think I’ve found something I like in your work he would pay for you.” Then he said, ”Why don’t you start this September?”
So, Henry Moore paid for my three years at the Royal College and for a very memorable visit to Berlin, Germany to meet Edward Keinholz. Keinholz was a key influence on my work because of the social-political dynamic of his tableaux sculptures. His output made references to a lot of writers I was interested in at the time, such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Edward Bond.
Art Interview: Did the Henry Moore Foundation also assist you after your education?
John Atkin: No. By the time I had finished my three years at Royal College I had started the Stanley Picker Fellowship at Kingston University and was preparing work for my first solo exhibition, “Strange Meeting” at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyyne, organized by Sara Selwood. My dealings and contact with Henry Moore became less frequent. My meeting with Moore was literally the right time and the right place. At the time I met him there was a long queue of reporters and journalists wanting to interview him; film crews, newspapers and magazines competing for his time. My connection with Henry Moore was a very unique and human one.
Art Interview: How did you begin your career once you were out of school?
John Atkin: I was fortunate. I completed the ‘Stanley Picker Fellowship’ at Kingston University. This was awarded to me from 1985-1986 and they gave me a studio, a stipend, and time to develop my work. During that period, Phillip King introduced me to Alex Gregory-Hood from the Juda Rowan Gallery. Ian Barker, who was also from the Juda Rowan Gallery, had taken an interest in my work, which I believe was largely to do to Phillip King’s recommendation.
Anney Juda assiduously followed my work and rewarded me with a solo exhibition and group shows in Switzerland and Hong Kong. Ian Barker introduced me to Diane Waldman, who wrote a memorable book, accompanied by an exhibition called, “Collage, Assemblage and the found Object”. I met her in London after finishing my first solo show in 1986, at the end of the Stanley Picker Fellowship. Annely Juda showed some large-scale drawings and a series of new sculptures I had made as a result of the fellowship. The exhibition worked very well but critical acclaim was very slow. A lot of critics came to see my exhibition and made encouraging noises, but failed to follow up with critical reviews and “critical reviews” were just what I needed to keep things rolling!
Afterward I had a tough couple of years working in a spare bedroom making drawings. I did not produce very much sculpture during that time. I had ideas for pieces of sculpture, but I could only make a series of medium scale drawings, because that was all I could afford. I did not have much of an income and I was not selling much of my work. I taught part time in Coventry, Leicester, and occasionally in Sunderland.
David Juda told me he was looking at two artists to add to his stable of artists and only one would make it. It was between David Nash and me. In retrospect it sounded like an art X-Factor and David was Simon Cowell! Understandably they chose David Nash. (Laughs) It made perfect sense. I was working out of a spare bedroom and David was making magnificent sculptures from his studio in North Wales.
So, very disillusioned, I started to look for opportunities around the globe. I had met Brett Rogers at the British Council and she put me in touch with Maudie Palmer. Brett said that if I ever got the chance to go to Australia, then I should make sure I got to see Maudie as she had a reputation for making things happen! I already had a kind of fascination with Australian culture. As luck would have it, I did get the chance to visit Australia via an opportunity to exhibit at the Mildura Sculpture Triennial. Michael Murry was the organizer and he invited me out to make a series of works using the backstage of the theatre at the Mildura Arts Centre as an improvised studio. My memories of Mildura are of blistering heat and red earth. It proved to be an important staging post in my career because it allowed me to travel to Melbourne and meet Maudie Palmer, who was then Director of Heide Park and Art gallery.
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John Atkin
Hostage
1989
Ceramic and tombstone
Solo exhibition.Rex Irwin Gallery
Sydney, Australia. |
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John Atkin
1989
Installation view of solo exhibition at Heide Park & Art Gallery
Melbourne, Australia. |
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John Atkin
Strange Meeting
2008
Marble & Granite
Commissioned by Beijing Municipal Council for the 2008 Olympic Park, Beijing, China. |
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Heide is a major venue for artists worldwide and is now known as the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Maudie was really keen on my work and I particularly recall her interest in my use of ceramic, combined with a variety of other media, as being a major aspect of my output at the time. She introduced me to a number of important people in the Victoria Art world and at the same time developed a strategy for me coming back to Australia to do an Artist in Residency at Victoria College, which was funded by the British Council and also the Australia Council for the Arts. This was terrific news and contrasted starkly with the bleak environment my career faced back in the UK. The artist in residency was organized for autumn 1989 and as well as undertaking a solo show at Heide I had also been invited to do a solo exhibition at Rex Irwin's Gallery in Sydney. I'd met Rex whilst on a visit to visited Sydney and he took an interest in my work and suggested that it should happen around the same time as my show finished at Heide. My artists in residency created a lot of press interest and different to their UK counterparts, the Australian press wrote in great depth about my work and career.
I completed my solo exhibition at Heide Park and Art Gallery where I exhibited a range of works that I produced during the residency, including large-scale drawings on canvas, fired clay sculptures and bronze pieces. I had three studios at Victoria College: one for sculpture, one for painting, and one for ceramics. I worked between the three different subject specialist areas in order to bring together a whole range of work, which explored themes relating to nomadism stimulated by studies from the found object.
There was interest in my work from a number of major commercial galleries in Melbournewhich coincided with a downturn in Australia’s economy and once again my opportunities took a nose-dive. (Laughs)
I returned to the U.K. in 1992 with a much more interesting track recordI started teaching part-time at Kent Institute of Art and Design as a first year tutor in fine art. In order to make ends meet I also started doing some work for a fashion retail outlet called Boules, two days a week driving a van to various locations in the UK where they had retail outlets. The main warehouse was full of paper templates, which were used to make up the designs for garments. As such they were a metaphor for the human figure: a kind of identikit of what we are as people. At the same time, they were appealing because of their beautiful abstract qualities, which eventually led my work into a period of abstraction, a legacy that's still present in certain aspects of my output today. Often pasting the paper/card template forms into the surfaces of canvases as the ground for working two-dimensional artworks from. The drawings would often be developed from actual pieces of sculpture, which were again stimulated by contemplation of garment template contour patterns.
I even used some aspects of these forms recently in Beijing, China when I created A 27-ton marble and granite sculpture for the Olympic Games that the Beijing Municipal Council organized.
Art Interview: Opportunities began opening up for you around 1992 allowing you to show in some major exhibitions.
John Atkin: Yes, major exhibitions in different places. Things started to take off when I began working at Loughborough University for the School of Art and Design, part time, two days a week. I had quit driving the van because I had sold some pieces and moved into a much bigger studio in Kingston called “Sculpture House”.
I had some contacts in America and I arranged for a lecture tour and exhibition, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, whichalso took me to Kansas City, Missouri and Loyola University - New Orleans. That show lasted three weeks and it was hugely successful, which led me to a range of exhibitions in New England, Kansas City and Louisiana. The The New Orleans Museum of Art had included my work in two group exhibitions, which explored the relationship between sculpture and sculptors drawings. This led to my first solo exhibition of drawings at Sylvia Schmidt Contemporary Art Gallery in New Orleans.
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John Atkin
Pendulum Reliefs
Solo exhibition - Alpha Gallery, Boston, Mass. USA |
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John Atkin
Dal Fabrro’s Chariot
2004
Corten & stainless steel
Commissioned by PlanArt for Beetham Organization.
Tate Liverpool Audit of Public Sculpture, City of Culture 2008 |
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Sherry Leedy arranged a solo show of my wall based sculptures called “Pendulum reliefs” at her gallery in Kansas City and shortly afterwards I was invited to exhibit in Boston at the Alpha Gallery. A little later on I was introduced to Angelos Camelos, the owner of the Kouros Gallery in New York and he decided to exhibit a new series of sculptures and drawings at his gallery on the Upper East Side. Prior to this show, I was once again fortunate to be backed by the British Council and exhibited a new series of drawings, “Scorched Earth”, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
The lecture tour helped to simulate more interest in my work in the U.K. Working as Reader in Fine Art at Loughborough University has certainly helped broaden the visibility of my work within the academic sphere and the research culture at LUSAD has been important to the development of my career.
Art Interview: What was your relationship with the Peggy Guggenheim Museum?
John Atkin: The Guggenheim came about with an introduction to Wilfred Cass of the ‘Cass Sculpture Foundation’ in 2000 or 2001. I met him through David Mitchinson, who was the Curator of the Henry Moore Foundation. Wilfred Cass had begun doing a lot of work of British Artists on a big scale, but at that time I had not even started any of the monumental works that I am now known for. I moved from a focus on galleries and museums to becoming much more interested in the public realm. Wilfred Cass was putting together the exhibition “Concepts for Twenty First Century British Sculpture: Thinking Big”, which he was very passionate about. He very generously funded the casting of two of my sculptures. Those particular pieces became the focal point of an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum that Wilfred Cass organized. The “Thinking Big” exhibition received worldwide critical acclaim and included artists such as Anthony Caro, Phillip King, Elizabeth Frink and a variety of others. Tim Marlow and Fred Licht, the curator of the Guggenheim Museum at that time, wrote the catalog. This kind of exposure caused quite a bit of interest in my career. I was working with small-scale pieces that could potentially be part of a big scale project. So, one piece for that show, called “Dal Fabrros Chariot”, was tiny - only 8 inches tall by 4 inches wide. The full-scale version of this can now be seen in Liverpool at Beetham Tower, which is the tallest tower in the Northwest of England. That small sculpture is now developed onto a monumental scale: 30 feet tall and stands powerfully in the atrium space. It is made from Corten and stainless steel.
Art Interview: How do you go about realizing monumental works?
This oral history transcript is the result of a digitally recorded interview with John Atkin on Dec. 3, 2008 and updated on May 20, 2009. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany and London, England and was conducted by Brendan Davis for Art Interview Online Magazine.
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