William G. Tucker
William Tucker ( born February 28, 1935 in Cairo, Egypt, lives and works in New York City, USA ) is a British (since 1985 with U.S. citizenship ) sculptor. He is considered an important representative of modern abstract sculpture.
Life and work
William G. Tucker was born in Cairo in Egypt, the son of English parents. In 1937 his family returned to England, where Tucker was raised.
From 1955-1958 he studied history at the University of Oxford. He continued his studies at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design continues in London, where Anthony Caro was teaching. He himself taught in later years at Goldsmiths College, London and at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
Tucker was one in the 1970s to the influential circle of English sculptors such as Philip King or Tim Scott, which were presented as ' New Generation ' in the eponymous exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in 1965 and a decisive impetus for the development of abstract sculpture and the extension the sculptures term translated. William Tucker in 1966 was invited to the groundbreaking exhibition ' Primary Structures ' at the Jewish Museum in New York, the decisive moment for the American Minimal Art In 1968, he was with six sculptures made of fiberglass and polyester participants in the documenta 4 in Kassel. During this time he was also known as a theorist, critic and curator. Tucker published in 1972 ' The Language of Sculpture ' and published reviews and essays in Studio International, the British counterpart to ARTFORUM. In the Hayward Gallery in London in 1975, he organized ' The Condition of Sculpture '. He moved in 1978 to New York and taught at Columbia University and the New York Studio School Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. He received the Guggenheim Fellowship for Sculpture in 1981 and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1986. Tucker was a U.S. citizen in 1985.
The current work of William Tucker has a relation to the human figure. Against the backdrop of the early work, this is surprising. But the distinction between figuration and abstraction treated Tucker open and sees no contradiction. "Any sculpture is a figure in a sense, if it reads as a total, a unity. " ( William Tucker, First Magazine, 1961)
Despite their figurative Bezuges the sculptures are to decipher in its form immediately and call. Do not refer to a simple, clearly readable human form or gesture - nothing stands on one leg, kneeling or sitting. Rather, the sculptures open up a wide field of possible associations and so retain their vivid and unique physique, which one can not escape. William Tucker's sculptures have a presence that provides our body with respect to them and does so deliberately.
The study of the nature, structure and mass of the human body, Tucker has led to a series of sculptures which, interestingly, are determined more by their abstract than their obvious form.
He moved in 1978 to New York and taught at Columbia University and the New York Studio School Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. He received the Guggenheim Fellowship for Sculpture in 1981 and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1986. Tucker was a U.S. citizen in 1985.
The current work of William Tucker has a relation to the human figure. Against the backdrop of the early work, this is surprising. But the distinction between figuration and abstraction treated Tucker open and sees no contradiction. "Any sculpture is a figure in a sense, if it reads as a total, a unity. " ( William Tucker, First Magazine, 1961)
Despite their figurative Bezuges the sculptures are to decipher in its form immediately and call. Do not refer to a simple, clearly readable human form or gesture - nothing stands on one leg, kneeling or sitting. Rather, the sculptures open up a wide field of possible associations and so retain their vivid and unique physique, which one can not escape. William Tucker's sculptures have a presence that provides our body with respect to them and does so deliberately.
The study of the nature, structure and mass of the human body, Tucker has led to a series of sculptures which, interestingly, are determined more by their abstract than their obvious form.
Sculptures from the current work phase by William Tucker are among other things in the collection of the Tate Gallery in London, the Guggenheim Museum and MoMA in New York, the Nasher Sculpture Center Dallas as well as at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.
Literature and sources
Sculpture in the Open Air, Greater London Council: Battersea Park, London, 1966.
Guggenheim International Exhibition 1967: Sculpture from Twenty Nations, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1967.
William Tucker, British Pavilion Venice Biennale XXXVI, 1972.
The Condition of Sculpture: A Selection of Recent Sculpture by Younger British and Foreign Artists, Hayward Gallery Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1972.
William Tucker, Sculptures, Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1977-1978.
The Prospect Mountain Show: An Homage to David Smith, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, New York, 1979.
Sculpture in the 20th century, Wenkenpark Riehen, Basel, 1980.
Il Luogo della Forma: Nove Scultoi a Castel Vecchio, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, 1981.
John Elderfield, New Work on Paper I, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1981.
Sandy Nairne & Nicholas Serota, ed, British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1981.
Judith K. Collischan van Wagner, Monumental Drawings by Sculptors, Hillwood Art Gallery, Long Iceland University, Greenvale, NY, 1983.
Artists Choose Artists II, CDS Gallery, New York, 1983.
Judith K. Collischan van Wagner, Reflections: New Conceptions of Nature, Hillwood Art Gallery, Long Iceland University, Greenvale, NY, 1984.
Frank Gettings, Drawings 1974-84, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, 1984.
John McEwen, Sculptors ' Drawings, The British Council, London 1984.
The Seventh Dalhousie Drawing Exhibition: Actual Size, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia , Canada, 1984.
Dore Ashton, American Art Since 1945, Oxford University Press, New York, 1985.
Daniel Wheeler, Art Since Mid Century 1945 to the Present, The Vendome Press, New York, 1991.
Sam Hunter and John Jacobus, Modern Art, Third Edition, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1993, page 337
Irving Sandler, Art of the Postmodern Era: from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, Harper Collins Publishers , 1996.
Tony Birks, The Alchemy of Sculpture, Marston House, 1998.
Brooke Barrie, Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture, Rockport Publishers, Gloucester, MA, 1999, pages 152-153.
Michael Auping, House of Sculpture, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, 1999, page 12, illustrated page 6
Alan Windsor, British Sculptors of the Twentieth Century, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Aldershot, England, 2003.
The Sculptural Idea, James J. Kelly, Fourth Edition, Waveland Press, Inc., Long Grove, Illinois, 2004.
Sculpture from the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, edited by Karen O. Janovy, University of Nebraska Press, 2005, pages 185-187 .
Joy Sleeman, The Sculpture of William Tucker, Lund Humphries, England, 2007.
Marzio, Peter C. Masterpieces From The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Director's Choice. Yale University Press, New Haven and London , 2009. Illustrated in color, p.189
William Tucker, Sculpture Park Forest Peace, Wuppertal, 2013