'Reforming Academicians', Sculptors of the Royal Academy of Arts, C
‘Reforming Academicians’, Sculptors of the Royal Academy of Arts, c.1948-1959 by Melanie Veasey Doctoral Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University, September 2018. © Melanie Veasey 2018. For Martin The virtue of the Royal Academy today is that it is a body of men freer than many from the insidious pressures of fashion, who stand somewhat apart from the new and already too powerful ‘establishment’.1 John Rothenstein (1966) 1 Rothenstein, John. Brave Day Hideous Night. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1966, 216. Abstract Page 7 Abstract Post-war sculpture created by members of the Royal Academy of Arts was seemingly marginalised by Keynesian state patronage which privileged a new generation of avant-garde sculptors. This thesis considers whether selected Academicians (Siegfried Charoux, Frank Dobson, Maurice Lambert, Alfred Machin, John Skeaping and Charles Wheeler) variously engaged with pedagogy, community, exhibition practice and sculpture for the state, to access ascendant state patronage. Chapter One, ‘The Post-war Expansion of State Patronage’, investigates the existing and shifting parameters of patronage of the visual arts and specifically analyses how this was manifest through innovative temporary sculpture exhibitions. Chapter Two, ‘The Royal Academy Sculpture School’, examines the reasons why the Academicians maintained a conventional fine arts programme of study, in contrast to that of industrial design imposed by Government upon state art institutions for reasons of economic contribution. This chapter also analyses the role of the art-Master including the influence of émigré teachers, prospects for women sculpture students and the post-war scarcity of resources which inspired the use of new materials and techniques.
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