Artists - GLYNN WILLIAMS - Biography

Born in Shrewsbury in 1939 Glynn Williams loved painting and drawing from an early age, so getting into Wolverhampton College of Art at 17 felt like a dream coming true.

Like many young sculptors in the 1960's he briefly embraced the orthodoxies of abstraction and conceptualism, but courageously broke away to pursue his interest in the figure and in the expressive possibilities offered by carving it in stone. In the face of vehement criticism from certain quarters he has ever since held to his own course to become the kind of artist that most people might imagine when they hear the word "sculptor" - a man standing in front of a block of stone with a hammer and chisel in his hand. But he is no medieval archetype; he has developed his own formal language in response to his wide reading and deep understanding of contemporary art practice. He continues to bring this to all his subject matter, whether it may be a figure study or one of his more recent explorations of that most traditional object of contemplation by artists - the still life.

Having successfully headed the sculpture department at Wimbledon School of Art between 1976 and 1990, he was considering leaving teaching when he was offered the Professorship at the Sculpture School of the Royal College of Art. He is still there, and the quality, range and variety of work that his graduating students show each year is a tribute to the open-mindedness of his leadership.

Glynn Williams has recently acquired a home in Shrewton, Wiltshire, where he has built a new studio. His work is held in notable public collections nationally and internationally while Bernard Jacobson, a friend and supporter of many years' standing, mounts one-man shows of his work at his Gallery in Clifford Street , London , and represents him.