Leslie Thornton (sculptor)
Leslie Thornton | |
---|---|
Born |
Leslie Thornton 1925 Skipton, North Yorkshire |
Nationality | British |
Education | Leeds College of Art, Royal College of Art |
Known for | Sculpture |
Movement | Modernism, Abstract art |
Leslie Thornton (born 1925), is an English sculptor and painter.
Education and early life
Born in Skipton, North Yorkshire, Thornton attended Keighley Art School on a County Art Scholarship from 1940 to 1942, before being conscripted to work in the mines to aid the war effort in 1943. From 1945 to 1948 he attended Leeds College of Art, and from 1948 to 1951 trained at the sculpture school of the Royal College of Art.[1]
Career
In 1951 Thornton graduated from the Royal College of Art and joined the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He began work as a visiting lecturer at Bromley School of Art, Hammersmith School of Art and Central School of Art, before taking the post of Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland in 1965. In 1970 he left this position to head up the Sculpture Department at the University of Stafford.[1]
In 1955 he took part in the British Council's internationally touring Young British Sculptors exhibition, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts included some of his work in their New Sculptors Exhibition in London. In 1957 he held his first solo exhibition at the Gimpel Fils Gallery in London. In 1961 he was commissioned to create a work for the Daily Mirror building, In 1965 he was commissioned to make two crucifixes for St Louis Priory in Missouri, and in 1968 he was commissioned to make a third for St Ignatius' College, Enfield.[2] In 1969 he published an 8-page book, titled Recent Sculpture[3]
In 2004 the Moore Institute in Leeds included him in their 100 Years of Sculpture exhibition, and from 2007-2009 he appeared in the Arts Council's touring Geometry of Fear exhibition.[2]
He has a son named David,[4] and currently lives in Harrogate, Leeds.[2]
References
- 1 2 Thornton, Leslie. Biography & CV, leslie-thornton.net. retrieved 16 July 2015
- 1 2 3 Profile: Leslie Thornton The Peggy Guggenheim Collection. retrieved 16 July 2015
- ↑ Recent Sculpture (1969) by Leslie Thornton. Google Books
- ↑ David Thornton Garden Design