Richard Deacon

Richard Deacon

Richard Deacon, born on the 15th August 1949, is a British abstract sculptor and winner of the turner prize. 

Born: Bangor, Wales

Education: St Martin's School of Art

Known for: Sculpture

Movement: New British Sculpture

Awards: Turner Prize (1987)

Richard Deacon was born in Bangor in Wales and educated at Plymouth College. He then studied at the Somerset College of Art, Taunton, at St Martin's School of Art, London and at the Royal College of Art, also in London. Richard Deacon left the Royal College in 1977 and went on to study part-time at the Chelsea School of Art. Deacons style of art is Abstract, but often alludes to anatomical functions. His work is often constructed from everyday materials such as laminated Plywood and he calls himself a "fabricator" rather than a "sculptor". His early pieces are typically made up of sleek curved forms and then later his works became much more bulky. Deacons body of work includes small-scale works suitable for showing in art galleries, as well as much larger pieces shown in sculpture gardens and objects often made for specific events such as dance performances. Deacon won the turner prize in 1987 after having previously been nominated in 1984. 

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Magdalena Abakanowicz, born on the 20th of June 1930, is a Polish sculptor and fiber artist from Falenty. Magdalena Abakanowicz studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and won a Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts in 1999. Abakanowicz currently lives and works in Warsaw.

Most pieces of her early artwork were lost or damaged during her moving from place to place when she was younger. Only few sketches were found in good condition. Later on she then recreated some of her early works from memory. 


During the 1970s and 1980s she changed her medium and scale and began working on sculptures of headless and armless humans made of sackcloth which is sewn together and bonded with synthetic resins. 

Magdalena Abakanowicz wanted to 'break the norm' and create her own style of art which nobody else had thought of before. 

El Greco

El Greco is a Greek painter, sculptor and architect. Greco was born in 1541 and died in 1614. El Greco normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters. El Greco has been characterised by some as an artist so individual that he belongs to no actual named movement. Greco is known for painting elongated figures, often quite darkly coloured and precise. El Greco regarded colour as the most important part of any painting. Supposedly, El Greco believed in constantly retouching and repainting his work, sometimes even on pieces which were months old. The autonomy of the human body inspired Greco as well as religion, he has done many thick oil paintings of Jesus, both upon the cross and not. Greco used a lot of oil paint, applied in both thick and thin layers. He also used quite dark colours and used thin brushes to get all the detail in. 




My name is El Greco and I am a Greek painter and sculptor as well as a part time architect. I was born in 1541 in the village of Fodele and I have descended from a successful urban family who were flourishing financially. My father was both a merchant and a tax collector and my mother was a humble woman who kept herself to herself and worked individually from home. My oldest brother, Monoussos, was archant and he spent the final years of his life in my Toledo home. 

In addition to painting, I studied both he classics of Ancient Greece and the Latin classics. I have written the Bible in Greek and annotated Vasari, and I will leave these to a library when I die. Still when I was in Crete, I painted the Dormition of the Virgin towards the end of my Cretan period

The Royal Academy of Arts trip

The Royal Academy of Arts

On the 17th of September we went to The Royal Academy of Arts to see the work of American artist, Joseph Cornell, who is best known for his 'Shadow Boxes' and the sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson who designs large architectural structures. 

Joseph Cornell, born in 1903 and dying in 1972, was born on

Christmas Eve in New York and he remains one of the most

influential American artists of the twentieth century. Cornell

was self taught and lived most of his life with his mother and his younger brother. Cornell would craft in his basement or on his kitchen table and began creating the Shadow Boxes there, these are what he is most best known for. Cornell rarely ever left New York as this is the place he knew and adored the most. People labelled Cornell as a timid yet eccentric man, but these mythologized versions are not real and these statements are false. 

The Cornell exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts shows us 80 of Cornell's most incredible Shadow Boxes, assemblages, films and collages. This including a lot of private work and a numerous amount which had not been seen outside of the USA. Although Cornell did not complete formal education, he was incredibly well read and spoken. Cornell was interested in theatre, ballet, the cinema and opera. Some say this perfectly reflects his eccentric self and the way he expresses himself through various things. In the 1930's, Cornell began working on his shadow boxes. Glass fronted box constructions contained intimately scaled arrangements of found objects and paper ephemera, assembled in a sort of three dimensional collage. People label Cornell's work as Surrealism, however he tried best to move away from this label and tried saying that he is 'simply himself' and follows no movement nor does he take inspiration from other artists in that movement. That is why he did not want to be labelled as a surrealist as he believed he was unique and most people knew that and told him that he is 'his own movement/style'. 

Chris Wilkinson is best known for his sketches of different architectural structures. Wilkinson's exhibition showed rows of his sketchbooks, showing off his sketches and ideas, as well as notes, of famous landmarks and buildings. I do not have very much information on Wilkinson's work however I did notice that he used a lot of watercolor in bright colours dulled down. From his sketchbooks you can clearly tell he he is an architect as well as an artist. I liked seeing his work as it was particularly nice seeing actual drawings and paintings on paper IN A SKETCHBOOK. 

Out of the two, I preferred Cornell's work as I think me and him are quite alike. We both seem to have similar ideas. He likes mishmashed art involving everything random with a lot of dark colours.

Environmental Artists Research

Environmental Artists Research

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a sculpture and photographer from Chesire, England. Andy Goldsworthy was born on the 26th July 1956. Andy Goldsworthy studied fine art at the Bramford college of Art (1974-75) and at Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, Lancashire where he received his Bachelor of Arts (B.A) degree from the latter between the time of 1975 and 1978. Goldsworthy's art movement is a mixture of both Environmental art and Land art and he has had many exhibitions including in Cumbria, Edinburgh, Cornwall, Sussex and even branching out all the way t0 Australia, New York and California. Goldsworthy uses many different types of natural items straight from nature such as stones, chalk, sticks, leaves, rocks, dirt, ferns, icicles, pinecones, snow, twigs, tree bark, conkers, nuts, berries and thorns. Andy has won many awards since 1979-2000.