Biography for Ted Atkinson R.E., FRBS (1934)

Early Years

Ted was born in Liverpool in 1929.  He trained as a sculptor at Liverpool College of Art from 1944 to 1948 under Karel Vogel and at the Slade School of Fine Art (University of London) from 1950 to 1954 with Reg Butler and Henry Moore.  Subsequently, he then later trained as a printmaker at the Central School of Art, London.

Early Career

arly CareerAfter leaving the Slade, he pursued a career in art education: initially as head of the Sculpture Department at Exeter College of Art and later at the Universities of Leeds and Coventry (Lanchester).  However East Anglia has been his base since he set up his sculpture studio in Wivenhoe in the 60’s.

 

Exhibiting

Over the years he has contributed to many shows nationally and internationally, with the main body of his work directed towards architectural commissions.  Major public sculptures have been sited in Britain, Germany, Holland and the USA.  In 1988, along with Moore, Frink and Armitage, he was one of six sculptors invited to represent Britain at Expo ‘88 in Brisbane.

 

Representative printworks can be found in a number of public and permanent collections including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Stadt Wetzlar Museum, Germany and the University of Ohio, USA.

 

Etching awards include the CCA Etching Prize at the Royal Academy in 1990, the Barcham Prize at the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers in 1992 and the University of the West of England Digital Print Prize at the RE Annual in 2007.  The award of the CCA Etching Prize

led to the publication of ‘Ted Atkinson, Etchings’,  a hardback with sixty full-page illustrations and a text by Dr. Gottfried Mann.