Nicholas Monro (born London, 1936) is an English pop art sculptor, print-maker and

art teacher Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of what ...

. He is known for being one of the few British pop artists to work in sculpture and is known for his use of

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

Life and work

Monro studied art at the

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

from 1958 to 1961. After graduating he began teaching at Swindon School of Art, then returned to Chelsea School of Art in 1968. In 1969 he received an Arts Council Award and was included in the exhibition ''Pop Art Re-Assessed'' at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

. In the early 1970s, he had a studio at

Hungerford Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, northeast of Salisbury and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the town alongside the ...

.Radio Birmingham interview with Munro, 11 May 1972, transcribed in part in His work was included in the 2004 pop art retrospective "Art and the 60s: This Was Tomorrow" at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

, and Birmingham Gas Hall and, in the same year, "British Pop Art 1956–1972" at the .

Public collections

Monro's works are in the collections of the

Berardo Collection Museum The Berardo Collection Museum (in Portuguese: Museu Colecção Berardo) was a museum of modern and contemporary art in Belém, a district of Lisbon, Portugal. It was replaced by the Conteporary Art Museum - Centro Cultural de Belém in January ...

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

and

Wolverhampton Art Gallery Wolverhampton Art Gallery is located in the City of Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, United Kingdom. The building was funded and constructed by local contractor Philip Horsman (1825–1890), and built on land provided by the municipal auth ...

Key works

* ''Money Bags'', painted fibreglass (1965) * ''Flock of Sheep'', painted fibreglass, (1968) – now in a private collection in Wuppertal, Germany * Statue of King Kong, painted fibreglass, (1972) * ''The Sand Dancers'' (a statue of

Wilson, Keppel and Betty Wilson, Keppel and Betty formed a popular British music hall and vaudeville act in the middle decades of the 20th century. They capitalised on the fashion for Ancient Egyptian imagery following the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The " ...

), made for the Sands Hotel, Edinburgh, now part of the Treadwell Collection. * Bust of

Max Wall Max Wall (12 March 1908 – 21 May 1990) was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered music hall, films, television and theatre. Early years Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful music hall entert ...

, painted fibreglass, sold for £6,875 ($11,323) at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

, London, on 23 August 2011 * Statue of

Eric Morecambe John Eric Bartholomew, (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's de ...

Ernie Wise Ernest Wiseman, (27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999), known by his stage name Ernie Wise, was an English comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, who became a national institution on British television, especially ...

, in painted fibreglass, commissioned in 1977 by the Arts Council, this statue was to form part of the British Genius exhibition at Battersea Park, London

References

External links

Film interview with Monro
filmed by ATV in Birmingham, in 1972
Monro prints in the Rose and Chris Prater gift, at Tate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monro, Nicholas 1936 births British pop artists English sculptors English male sculptors Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts British art teachers 20th-century English educators Living people People from Hungerford