'Hut Eye' by Grenville Davey, Southbank Centre

Grenville Davey (28 April 1961 – 28 February 2022) was a British sculptor and winner of the 1992

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

. Davey was a visiting professor of the

University of the Arts London University of the Arts London is a collegiate university in London, England, specialising in arts, design, fashion and the performing arts. It is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea Coll ...

and programme leader, MA Fine Art at the

University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...

. From December 2010 he became resident artist at the physics department of

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

, working with David Berman. Grenville was the artist-in-residence at the

Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and its many applications at the University of Cambridge. It is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathemat ...

from January to June 2012.

Life

Born in Launceston, Cornwall, Davey first studied art in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

before going to

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1985 where he took a BA in fine art. His first solo show was at the Lisson Gallery in London in 1987.artist's profile
Davey was single and has one child Sennen Davey, with his former wife, the sculptor Victoria Burton-Davey. He played football with Dave Rowe in the summer of 1976. Davey died following a long-term illness on 28 February 2022, at the age of 60.

Work

Davey's work was influenced by the work of sculptors such as

Tony Cragg Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. Early life and training Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...

and Richard Deacon and shows a similar interest in industrial materials. The simplicity of his forms shows an affinity with

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

. Many of his works make references to everyday objects which if exhibited in themselves would be readymades. ''Button'', a metre and a half wide clothes button made in steel, is a typical early work. Later works, such as ''Gold (Table)'' (a table as tall as a human) are larger in size. Primarily a sculptor, Davey produced a series of 12 prints with five other artists including etchings and screenprints.

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public health and tropical medicine. The inst ...

commissioned Davey to create a piece that reflected the maritime origins of the School, this resulted in a vast oak veneer wave wall. This is part of the School's contemporary art programme, which started in 2000.The initial idea was to commission or purchase some sculptures and pictures, but the building has relatively few suitable spaces for placing or hanging art. So instead the emphasis shifted towards commissioning works that fitted, both in terms of the themes of the school and the architecture of the building.

Awards

Davey won the Tate's

in 1992. Entitled ''HAL'', the work comprised two abstract steel objects, each measuring 244 x 122 cm (96 x 48 in).

References

External links

Architecture and the Visual Arts
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davey, Grenville 1961 births 2022 deaths 20th-century British sculptors 21st-century sculptors English sculptors English male sculptors Turner Prize winners Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London People from Launceston, Cornwall English contemporary artists