Biography

Flanagan was born in Prestatyn, North Wales and studied at St Martin's School of Art from 1964 to 1966. In the late 1960s he was one of a number of British sculptors who rejected the traditional materials of sculpture for materials such as rope, sackcloth, branches or sand for use in installation projects. In 1973 Flanagan took up carving, learning the techniques in a studio in Italy, which specialised in monumental carving and ornamental stonework. In 1977 the artist began working with sheet metal and bronze casting.