William Tucker
Works available
Four Part Sculpture I
C. 1966
Painted fibreglass
Unique
91.5 × 228.6 × 228.6 cm / 3ft x 7ft6 × 7ft6 ins
Volans A
1970
Painted fibreglass
Unique
228.6 × 317.5 × 177.8 cm / 7ft6 × 10ft5 × 5ft10 ins
Porte I
1973
Steel
Unique
151 × 290 × 127 cm / 4ft11 1/2 × 9ft6 × 4ft2 1/2 ins
Biography
William Tucker was born in Cairo in 1935 but returned to England with his family in 1937. He studied history at Oxford University between 1955 and 1958, and throughout this period attended life classes at the Ruskin School of Drawing, where his fellow students included R B Kitaj. He went on to study sculpture at the Central and St. Martin's Schools of Art in London from 1958 to 1960, sharing a studio with fellow student Isaac Witkin, before taking up teaching posts at Goldsmith's College and St. Martin's School of Art in 1961.
Tucker's early work was highly experimental, making use of industrial materials such as sheet metal and fibreglass to construct abstract sculptures that are often painted in bright colours. Many of the 1960s works, such as Four Part Sculpture I, consist of several identical geometric elements assembled into abstract configurations, with solid colour used to articulate outline and volume. Different compositions are often created from the same basic units, to create series of works. The 1970 sculpture Volans (A), is made up of three separate L-shaped tubular elements to be installed against a wall in any one of three different arrangements. Another sculpture from 1973, Porte I, demonstrates Tucker's interest in linear perspective and the notion of the line in space.
William Tucker has lived and worked in the USA since 1976, and has exhibited widely in America, Europe and the UK. His work is represented in major public collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York and Tate, London.