Bernard Meadows
Born 19 February 1915
Died 12 January 2005
Active: 1934 - 1995
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, painter, teacher
Born Norwich. Studied at Norwich School of Art 1934-36; Royal College of Art 1938-40. Assistant to Henry Moore 1936-39 and 1946-48. Served in Dover, India, Ceylon and Cocos Islands in Royal Air Force 1941-46. Awarded Italian State scholarship 1956. Taught at Chelsea School of Art 1948-60; Bath Academy of Art. Professor of Sculpture at Royal College of Art 1960-80. Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art 1980.
Commissions include : Festival of Britain 1951; bronze sculpture for school for Hertfordshire Education Committee 1954; Fallen bird for Bumpus Bookshop, Baker Street, London 1958; Bowmansgreen School, London Colney, Hertfordshire 1954; Crown Woods School, Eltham, Kent 1959; Spirit of Trade Unionism 1958, Congress House, London.
Exhibitions include : VB 1952; Institute of Contemporary Arts 1952; Gimpel Fils 1957, 59, 63 (solos) and subsequently; LCC 1957, 60; BC 1956; BCSP 57; SPB 1958; Brussels International Fair 1958; Pittsburgh 1958; AC 1960, 61; Middelheim, Antwerp 1953, 59; Sonsbeek, Arnhem 1958; Kassel Documenta II 1959; Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York 1959 (solo).
Collections include: Tate Gallery; Arts Council; British Council; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Storm King Sculpture Park, New York.
Further reading : A. Bowness and P. Curtis, Bernard Meadows: Sculpture and Drawings, (London: The Henry Moore Foundation/Lund Humphries, 1995).
P. Curtis, Bernard Meadows, Sculpture and Works on Paper: An 80th Birthday Survey, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1995, (exh. cat.).
W.J. Strachan, ‘The Sculptor and his Drawings II : Bernard Meadows’, in The Connoisseur, April 1974.
Biography from Whiteley (2001) and additional information from Raikes (2009)
Wealth at death: £233,892 0s. 0d.
Probate date: 24 June 2005
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Black Crab
1951 - 1952
Personal and Professional Connections
Studio assistant to Henry Spencer Moore
1936 - 1949 (Circa)
The working relationship lasted around fifty years (see Raikes (2005)
Sources
The Sculpture of Bernard Meadows
1995
Directory of sculptors working and exhibiting in Britain in the 1950s, by Gillian Whiteley
2001
pp. 23-4
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Sophie Raikes, ‘Meadows, Bernard William (1915–2005)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/94583, accessed 25 July 2010]
Citing this record
'Bernard Meadows', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/mapping/public/view/person.php?id=ann_1280066444, accessed 09 Oct 2026]
