William Tucker
b. 1935
William Tucker was born in Cairo in 1935 and moved to England with his family in 1937. He studied history at Oxford University and during this time attended classes at the Ruskin School of Drawing, along with R B Kitaj. Between 1958-60 he studied sculpture at St Martin’s Schools of Art under the maverick leadership of Frank Martin and Anthony Caro. Fellow students included David Annesley, Phillip King and Isaac Witkin, all of whom were included in the influential New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in 1965.
Tucker’s early sculpture was highly experimental and presented abstract assembled forms made from industrial materials which were often brightly coloured. Many of his 1960s work consisted of several identical geometric elements assembled into abstract configurations, with solid colour used to articulate outline and volume.
In 1966 Tucker’s Meru series was included alongside Anthony Caro at the seminal exhibition Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York and in 1972 Tucker represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. His highly successful book The Language of Sculpture was first published in 1974 and evolved from a series of lectures he gave whilst he was Gregory Fellow in Sculpture at the University of Leeds (1968-70).
Moving to New York in 1978, Tucker established his reputation in a newly expressive and increasingly bodily form. He mastered a unique balance between the figurative and the abstract, with truly powerful results. Tucker’s recent sculpture is expressive in its mass, bringing emotional gesture to the ‘solid core’. An ambiguity of image means that direct interpretations are elusive however, as a result, his sculptures can be endlessly enjoyed as their intricate surfaces and complex forms continue to intrigue.
In the late 1970’s Tucker taught at Columbia University, New York and received the Guggenheim Fellowship for Sculpture in 1981 and the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1986. He is currently co-chairman of the Art Program at Bard College and is due to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the international Sculpture Centre in 2010.
