Nicholas Pope

Nicholas Pope (1949, Sydney, Australia), British/Australian artist. He studied art at the Bath Academy of Art. In 1974 he was granted a Romanian Government Exchange Scholarship and in 1976 the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Award.

Pope’s work from the 1970s has a powerful abstract quality that is softened by his use of natural materials, chalk and wood. His most important early shows included solo exhibitions at the Garage Gallery (1976), the Anthony Stokes Gallery (1979), and the Art & Project Gallery in Amsterdam (1979). In 1980 Pope represented Britain at the XXXIX Venice Biennale.

In 1981 the Kröller-Müller Museum in Holland mounted a retrospective of Pope’s career. In the same year, he traveled to Zimbabwe as a British Council Cultural Visitor.

In 1982 Pope contracted a rare form of encephalitic virus after a visit to Africa. It was undiagnosed for several years and his work was impaired due to a degree of permanent brain damage being inflicted.^[1] In 1987 Pope withdrew from the art world and abandoned his studio work. This period of inactivity continued until 1992, at which point he began producing naïve looking clay works. At this point religion and Christianity became a strong theme in his work.

The first comprehensive monograph of Pope's work was published by Ridinghouse in 2013. This title features sculptures and drawings by Pope from the 1970s to present, along with texts by Tate Britain Director Penelope Curtis, Christopher Townsend and Andrew Sabin.^[2]

Pope now lives and works in Herefordshire. His work is included in many museum collection in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Nicholas Pope is represented by Richard Saltoun Gallery, London.

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