Born in South Africa, Michael Edward Bolus was an artist and teacher who settled in England in 1957 and studied at
St Martin's School of Art from 1958 to 1962, studying under
Anthony Caro
Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' industrial objects. His style was of the modernist school, having worked with Henry Moor ...
. After a brief period living in Cape Town he returned to London in 1964 to begin a teaching post at St Martin's and the
Central School of Art and Design
The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and ...
. Bolus had his first UK solo exhibition at Waddington Galleries in 1968, which has exhibited a number of his sculptures since then.
As a student his earliest work was modelled or sculpted in stone, but Bolus soon abandoned these traditional techniques in favour of working with steel and aluminium, materials that allowed him to explore the notions of balance and the extension of form which had long interested him. For the New Generation show in 1965 he exhibited a series of polychromatic sculptures taking the form of abstract shapes cut out of sheet aluminium, placed flat on the ground or stood on edge. A good example of this group of works is, Bowbend, 1964.
In 1966 Bolus took part in the
"Primary Structures" exhibition at the
Jewish museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area.
List of Jewish museums
Notable Jewish museums include:
*Albania
** Solomon Museum, Berat
*Australia
** Jewish Mu ...
in New York. The same year he was given his first one-man show in America at the Kornblee Gallery. In the 1970s his sculpture left the ground, becoming more fragmented and making use of lattice and grid-like constructions that defy gravity, such as Sculpture No. 3, 1973 and Untitled, 1984.
Bolus was part of a generation of sculptors inspired by the constructivist work made by
Julio González and
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and continued by
David Smith and
Anthony Caro
Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' industrial objects. Hi