Alfred Gerrard
Encyclopedia
Alfred Horace "Gerry" Gerrard RBS
(7 May 1899 – 13 June 1998) was an English modernist
sculptor. He was head of the sculpture department at the Slade School of Fine Art
from 1925 and professor of sculpture there from 1949 to 1968, where he taught a number of well-known sculptors.
where his family had been farming for four centuries. He was the youngest of five children and was directly descended from the 16th century herbalist
John Gerard
. Gerrard was educated at Northwich Technical School which he left in 1916.
During the First World War he served in the army with the Cameron Highlanders
, the Black Watch
and the Gordon Highlanders and in the Royal Flying Corps
(RFC) from 1917. In the RFC, Gerrard flew Farman MF.11
s and F.E.2Bs
as a night bomber pilot, crashing and injuring his back on one occasion when his undercarriage
fell off.
in 1919 and at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1920 where Henry Tonks
was his teacher and contemporaries included Samuel Rabinovitch
. In 1925, Tonks appointed Gerrard head of the school's sculpture department, a position he held until 1948 after which he was Professor of Sculpture until 1968 and then Emeritus Professor. In the 1920s, Gerrard elected to wear a standard set of clothes – sports jacket
, corduroy trousers, a collarless shirt and a yellow stock. He bought multiple copies of these items and wore them regularly for decades.
During the Second World War, Gerrard was a Staff Captain attached to the Royal Engineers
working on camouflage
projects. Following a plane crash in which he was badly injured, he almost had an arm amputated, but persuaded his doctors to save it so that he could continue sculpting.
In a long teaching career Gerrard taught and influenced numerous artists, among them Kenneth Armitage
, Karin Jonzen, Eduardo Paolozzi
and F. E. McWilliam
. In the austerity years after the Second World War, Gerrard kept the school supplied with raw materials for sculpting by salvaging stone, wood and metal from bomb sites. Well respected for his expertise as a teacher and his generosity, many of his former students would visit him at his home in Kent where he continued sculpting into his eighties.
Whilst teaching at the Slade, Gerrard received private sculpture commissions, often executed on a large scale in stone, as well as producing murals for ocean liners. He also worked as a book illustrator with his future wife Katherine Leigh-Pemberton, producing wood cuts for Elephants and Ethnologists (by Grafton Elliot Smith
) and Egyptian Mummies (by Smith and Warren Royal Dawson
) in 1924 and for the Book of Bath in 1925. During 1944–45 he worked as a war artist
.
Among his sculptural works are:
An exhibition of his work was staged at the South London Art Gallery in 1978. Collections that contain work by Gerrard include the Tate Gallery, and the Imperial War Museum
. The Henry Moore Institute archive contains works by Gerrard and his papers.
He had no children.
Royal British Society of Sculptors
The Royal British Society of Sculptors is a registered charity whose aims are to promote and support sculpture. It has a worldwide membership....
(7 May 1899 – 13 June 1998) was an English modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
sculptor. He was head of the sculpture department at the Slade School of Fine Art
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
from 1925 and professor of sculpture there from 1949 to 1968, where he taught a number of well-known sculptors.
Early life
Gerrard was born on 7 May 1899 in Hartford, CheshireHartford, Cheshire
Hartford is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies at the intersection of the A559 road and the West Coast Mainline and is less than south west of the town of Northwich...
where his family had been farming for four centuries. He was the youngest of five children and was directly descended from the 16th century herbalist
Herbalist
An herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
John Gerard
John Gerard
John Gerard aka John Gerarde was an English herbalist notable for his herbal garden and botany writing. In 1597 he published a large and heavily illustrated "Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes", which went on to be the most widely circulated botany book in English in the 17th century...
. Gerrard was educated at Northwich Technical School which he left in 1916.
During the First World War he served in the army with the Cameron Highlanders
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders was an infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1793. In 1961 it was merged with the Seaforth Highlanders to form the Queen's Own Highlanders...
, the Black Watch
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
and the Gordon Highlanders and in the Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
(RFC) from 1917. In the RFC, Gerrard flew Farman MF.11
Farman MF.11
|-See also:-External links:* * *...
s and F.E.2Bs
Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2
The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2 was a two-seat pusher biplane that was operated as a day and night bomber and as a fighter aircraft by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War...
as a night bomber pilot, crashing and injuring his back on one occasion when his undercarriage
Undercarriage
The undercarriage or landing gear in aviation, is the structure that supports an aircraft on the ground and allows it to taxi, takeoff and land...
fell off.
Career
After being demobilized Gerrard studied at the Manchester School of ArtManchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
in 1919 and at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1920 where Henry Tonks
Henry Tonks
Henry Tonks, FRCS was a British draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist...
was his teacher and contemporaries included Samuel Rabinovitch
Samuel Rabin (artist)
Samuel Rabin, originally Samuel Rabinovitch, was an English sculptor, artist, teacher, singer, wrestler and Olympic bronze medalist.-Family and early life:...
. In 1925, Tonks appointed Gerrard head of the school's sculpture department, a position he held until 1948 after which he was Professor of Sculpture until 1968 and then Emeritus Professor. In the 1920s, Gerrard elected to wear a standard set of clothes – sports jacket
Sportcoat
A sportcoat, sports coat or sports jacket, is a tailored jacket for men. Though it is of a similar cut and length to a suit jacket there are many differences. First, it is less formal. Also it is designed to be worn on its own and does not come as part of a suit...
, corduroy trousers, a collarless shirt and a yellow stock. He bought multiple copies of these items and wore them regularly for decades.
During the Second World War, Gerrard was a Staff Captain attached to the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
working on camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
projects. Following a plane crash in which he was badly injured, he almost had an arm amputated, but persuaded his doctors to save it so that he could continue sculpting.
In a long teaching career Gerrard taught and influenced numerous artists, among them Kenneth Armitage
Kenneth Armitage
William Kenneth Armitage CBE was a British sculptor known for his semiabstract bronzes.-Biography:...
, Karin Jonzen, Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
and F. E. McWilliam
F. E. McWilliam
F.E. McWilliam , was a British surrealist sculptor, born in Banbridge, County Down. He worked in stone, wood and bronze chiefly.-Biography:...
. In the austerity years after the Second World War, Gerrard kept the school supplied with raw materials for sculpting by salvaging stone, wood and metal from bomb sites. Well respected for his expertise as a teacher and his generosity, many of his former students would visit him at his home in Kent where he continued sculpting into his eighties.
Whilst teaching at the Slade, Gerrard received private sculpture commissions, often executed on a large scale in stone, as well as producing murals for ocean liners. He also worked as a book illustrator with his future wife Katherine Leigh-Pemberton, producing wood cuts for Elephants and Ethnologists (by Grafton Elliot Smith
Grafton Elliot Smith
Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, FRS FRCP was an Australian anatomist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory.-Professional career:Smith was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
) and Egyptian Mummies (by Smith and Warren Royal Dawson
Warren Royal Dawson
Warren Royal Dawson was an English insurance agent, Egyptologist and antiquarian.-Biography:Educated at St Paul's School, Dawson was forced to abandon his education on the death of his father in 1903...
) in 1924 and for the Book of Bath in 1925. During 1944–45 he worked as a war artist
War artist
A war artist depicts some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how "war shapes lives." War artists have explored a visual and sensory dimension of war which is often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.- Definition and context:A...
.
Among his sculptural works are:
- Memorial Stone for a Hunter, 1926. Displayed temporarily at the Tate GalleryTate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
before its final installation. - North Wind, 1928–29. One of eight personifications of the four windsAnemoiIn Greek mythology, the Anemoi were Greek wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came , and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions...
commissioned by Charles HoldenCharles HoldenCharles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...
and Frank PickFrank PickFrank Pick LLB Hon. RIBA was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London in 1906...
for the headquarters of the Underground Electric Railways Company of LondonUnderground Electric Railways Company of LondonThe Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
at 55 Broadway55 Broadway55 Broadway is a notable building overlooking St. James's Park in London. It was designed by Charles Holden and built between 1927 and 1929, and in 1931 the building earned him the RIBA London Architecture Medal...
. - St Anselm, 1933, St Anselm's church, Kennington CrossKennington CrossKennington Cross is a locality in the London Borough of Lambeth....
. - Monumental Parcel, gilded carved wooden panels of horses in a forest for RMS BritannicRMS Britannic (1929)RMS Britannic was an ocean liner of the White Star Line, the company's third ship to bear the name. She was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast. She was launched on 6 August 1929. Like her running mate , Britannic was a motorship powered by diesel engines. She measured 26,943 gross tons and was ...
. - Stages in the Development of Man, 1955, four wall panels built into the end façade of a building in Hemel HempsteadHemel HempsteadHemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
. - The Dance, 1960, a sculpture wall for which he was awarded the Royal British Society of SculptorsRoyal British Society of SculptorsThe Royal British Society of Sculptors is a registered charity whose aims are to promote and support sculpture. It has a worldwide membership....
' Silver medal.
An exhibition of his work was staged at the South London Art Gallery in 1978. Collections that contain work by Gerrard include the Tate Gallery, and the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
. The Henry Moore Institute archive contains works by Gerrard and his papers.
Family
Gerrard married three times:- 1933, Katherine Leigh-Pemberton (d. 1970)
- 1972, Nancy Sinclair (d. 1995)
- 1995, Karen Sinclair
He had no children.
External links
- Hemel Online – Stages in the Development of Man
- Imperial War Museum
- http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwmcollections.org.uk%2FqryMain.php&TN=Uncat&SN=AUTO14692&SE=1738&RN=0&MR=25&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=1&XP=&RF=allResults&EF=&DF=allDetails&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=1&ID=&MF=WPENGMSG.INI&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=195058&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&BG=0&FG=0&QS=Wing Commander James E ('Johnnie') Johnson]
- Wing Commander John C Button
- Monumental Parcel