Emily Young

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Emily Young is a British sculptor and is considered one of the foremost sculptors in Britain today ^[1]. She was born in London in 1951 into a family of artists and writers. Her grandmother Kathleen Scott was a pupil of Auguste Rodin and widow of the famous explorer Robert F. Scott. Her uncle was the famous ornithologist, conservationist and painter, Sir Peter Scott.

1 Early life
2 Sculptural style
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Early life

She received her secondary education at Putney High School, Holland Park School, Friends School Saffron Walden, and the King Alfred School London. First interested in painting, she spent her youth in London, Wiltshire and Italy before she went to the Chelsea School of Art for one term in 1968. She also studied at the St Martin's School of Art. In the late sixties and seventies, she travelled widely, vising Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, France and Italy, Africa and the middle east. She also lived in the United States. It was during these years of travelling that she developed her broad view of art.

In the mid 1960s, she was involved in the psychedelic scene of London, and was the inspiration for the song "See Emily Play", written by Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. During the seventies and eighties, she lived and worked with the late Simon Jeffes, proprietor of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. They had one son, Arthur, born 1978. She produced the artwork for various album covers for the band.

[edit] Sculptural style

Emily Young's sculptures blend a contemporary and philosophical approach with classical Graeco-Roman and Renaissance traditions. She often leaves the bare faced natural rock surfaces unworked, allowing the material history of the stone itself to speak to the viewer. She works with large and small blocks of varied stones, including limestones, Lapis lazuli. marbles, chalcedonies and quartzite. She leaves the stones to tell their story, giving them a natural and sometimes antique feel, as if the sculpture had been recovered from an archaelogical site. This technique also creates a contrast between the rough, natural stone and the intricate veins of polished marble or chalcedony, allowing the natural beauty of the stone full credit.

She works only with natural stone. The immense ages of the stones, (sometimes billions of years old) are a major theme of the work. The work encourages a long view of the world we inhabit, and an awareness of its preciousness.

A major book of her work, "Time in the Stone" is published in March 2007 by Tacit Hill Editions.

Writer Louis de Bernieres wrote of her work in 1998:

"Emily Young’s work is characterised by the highly individual way in which it combines strength with gentleness. Her sculptures are massive, but their contours are rounded, as if moulded by a lover’s hand, rather than chiselled out by steel. Their curves are akin to those of the South Downs of England, which seem to be constructed of the limbs of sleeping giants, of their hips, thighs, shoulders and breasts."

Her sculptures, often massive, have been exhibited in various galleries and parks around the world. A large onyx disk, sculpted and polished by Emily Young and titled "Lunar Disc I", was installed in the close of the Salisbury Cathedral in 2005. There are five one ton heads outside St.Pauls Cathedral in London and a large Wounded Angel in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.