Biography

Kenneth Armitage was one of a number of leading British sculptors to be born in Yorkshire, like Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth before him. He studied at Leeds College of Art and at the Slade School of Art in London, before serving in the army during the Second World War. After the war, Armitage became head of the sculpture department at Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, Wiltshire. It was during this time that he moved away from carving in stone to modelling with plaster on metal armatures, and casting in bronze. The human figure was Armitage’s main subject. He became well-known for creating small-scale groups of figures with their bodies merged together.