Marcus Cornish is a contemporary British sculptor. After obtaining a First Class Honours degree in Sculpture at

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgrad ...

, he went on to gain a Master of Arts degree at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

.Marcus Cornish - Career Outline
Supplementary document (PDF) accompanying his application to be considered for the work of creating the sculpture of Jesus Christ for the Our Lady Immaculate and St Philip Neri Church in Uckfield, East Sussex A scholarship enabled him to spend time in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, studying the work of traditional

Aiyanar Ayyanar (IAST: Aiyaṉār, ta, ஐயனார்) is a Hindu deity venerated in South India and Sri Lanka. His worship is prevalent among the Dravidian peoples. Some studies suggest that Ayyanar may have also been worshipped in Southeast Asi ...

potter priests, and his Master's thesis was about their work crafting terracotta horses for

shrines in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. In 1993 he was elected a Member of the

Royal British Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British charity established in 1905 which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London. It ...

. He spent time as official tour artist with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in Kosovo, and again as official tour artist on a diplomatic tour of Eastern Europe by

The Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers o ...

. He is an Academic Board member, and occasional tutor, of

The Prince's Drawing School The Royal Drawing School is a not-for-profit educational organisation and registered charity in the London Borough of Hackney in England. It was founded in 2000 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and artist Catherine Goodman as The Pr ...

- a charitable trust founded by the Prince of Wales that provides a wide range of courses focused on drawing and painting skills.

Works

Statue PaddingtonBear PaddingtonStn DMS 06122005-002-1

Marcus Cornish' Christ sculpture at Uckfield, East Sussex

In 2000, he created a life-size bronze statue of Paddington Bear, the fictional bear from Darkest Peru, that stands in

Paddington Station Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...

in London. He was commissioned by a property developer to create five bronze statues of Scottish wild animals. One of them, a greater-than-life-size statue of a red deer stag, was placed in St. James's Square, London, in 2002. In 2004, he was involved in a collaborative project to create a memorial to recipients of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

and George Cross medals, which was installed in the Pillared Hall in the

Ministry of Defence Main Building The Ministry of Defence Main Building or MOD Main Building, also known as MOD Whitehall or originally as the Whitehall Gardens Building, is a Listed building, grade I listed government office building located on Whitehall in London. The building w ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

, London, and dedicated on 2 November 2004. The memorial consists of a stained glass window, designed and created by Rachel Foster and the Eastwood Senior Citizens Art Project Enterprise (ESCAPE), and a 16-foot high bronze column from which emerges, at the top, a powerful figure, 'Courage', designed and created by Marcus Cornish. In 2005, he was Sculptor-in-Residence at the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

, and subsequently exhibited the clay and plaster sculptures he created during that time and based on his observations and experience there, under the title "Impressions from a London Seam". In 2008, he was commissioned to create a sculpture of St John the Evangelist for the parish church of that name in Heron's Ghyll in Sussex. The statue was dedicated on 11 January 2009 by Bishop Kieran Conry. In 2008-2009, he was commissioned to create a bronze statue of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

to mark the 50th anniversary of the Our Lady Immaculate and St Philip Neri

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Church in

Uckfield Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald. Etymology 'Uckfield', first recorded in writing as ...

, East Sussex. The statue, which was installed on the front of the church in May 2009, depicts a very contemporary figure, wearing a shirt and loose trousers. It was immediately dubbed "Jesus in Jeans" by the media, and was widely reported and commented on.Church wants Jesus in jeans statue to connect with community
''Jenna Lyle'', Christian Today, 14 May 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornish, Marcus English sculptors English male sculptors Living people Alumni of the Royal College of Art Year of birth missing (living people)

Works

See also

References