William Kenneth Armitage

WILLIAM KENNETH ARMITAGE (Leed, UK, 1916- London, 2002).
S/t, 1993.
Ink on paper.
Signed, dedicated and dated.
Measurements: 10,5 x 15 cm.
William Kenneth Armitage, was a British sculptor widely recognized for his semi-abstract bronze work, in which the human figure is combined with unusual and often ironic forms, cementing his place as a central figure in modern art in the United Kingdom during the 20th century. He began his artistic training at Leeds College of Art and continued his studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery of the British Army. At the end of the war, in 1946, he was appointed head of the Sculpture Department at the Bath Academy of Art, where he developed in parallel his teaching vocation and his artistic production. It was in 1952 when he held his first solo exhibition in London, a time when his personal style, based on stylized human figures and often fused with animal forms or functional elements, began to consolidate strongly.
In 1953 he was appointed the first university artist-in-residence in the United Kingdom, at the University of Leeds, where he worked until 1956. His international projection was reaffirmed in 1958 when he won the prize for the best international sculpture for artists under 45 years of age at the Venice Biennale. Throughout his career, Armitage received multiple recognitions for his contribution to British contemporary art, including his appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, and his election as a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1994. Among the most significant tributes to his career was the installation in 2001 of his sculpture Both Arms in Millennium Square, Leeds, accompanied by a commemorative plaque and presented to the public by Nelson Mandela. Later, in 2018, his work Legs Walking, made in 2001, was placed in City Square, in front of Mill Hill Chapel, also in Leeds.
His work is distinguished by a personal and easily recognizable visual language, in which the human figure occupies the center, although subjected to formal transformations that incorporate animal, furniture and abstract structures.