KNEALE Robert Bryan Charles 1930-2025

Sculptor, born in Douglas, Isle of Man, the son of journalist W.T. Kneale. Bryan Kneale, as he is known, following studies at Douglas School of Art in 1947, was awarded a painting scholarship to the RA Schools 1948-1952, where his tutors included Philip Connard. In 1949, he won the Rome Scholarship and spent most of his time travelling around Italy. He destroyed nearly all of his paintings executed during this period but continued to work as a painter until 1959. He learnt to weld in 1960 and began making steel sculptures. Kneale held his first solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, London, in 1954 and was the recipient of the Daily Express Young Painters prize in 1955. By 1964, he was teaching at the RCA.

Examples of his work are in the collections of the Contemporary Art Society, Tate Gallery, ACGB, RWA, Wakefield Art Gallery, the Manx Museum Manchester City Art Gallery, the British Museum, Sheffield City Art Gallery, the National Gallery of New Zealand, York City Art Gallery, New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Loughborough University Art Collection, Museums Sheffield, Walker Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, National Gallery of South Australia, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo.

An elected member of RA (1974), and held the post of Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools. His other teaching posts include Head of Sculpture at Hornsey College of Art and Professor of Sculpture at the RA Schools. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Whitechapel Gallery at the age of 36. He has also exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London, Serpentine Gallery, Fitzwilliam Museum and at major galleries around the world. His public commissions include Sculpture for Westminster Cathedral, for Portsmouth Cathedral, for the Manx Government Building and for Camberwell Library, London. As a young artist, he also illustrated an early version of the Quatermass II book written by his brother Nigel Kneale. In 2019, he was awarded an MBE for services to art