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Steve Hurst
ABOUT
“Steve Hurst was born in Cairo in 1932. Evacuated from Egypt on the outbreak of war he was educated in England then, following National Service in Malaya, he worked in the engineering industry. These two aspects of his life retain a strong presence in his work. Having studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing, the University of Oxford and then at Goldsmiths College (1959-60), Hurst trained in casting under the legendary bronze founder Alberto Angeloni at the Royal College of Art (1968-69). In 1971, Hurst was invited by George Fullard to run the sculpture foundry at Chelsea School of Art and went on, in 1979, to become Head of the Sculpture department at the University of Ulster in Belfast.
In 1982 Hurst and his wife, Sylvie, set up a foundry to cast sculpture in Oxfordshire, and began a long and happy association with Pangolin Editions. Hurst then began working as a foundry consultant and training adviser to NGOs in developing countries. While working in Uganda and Eastern Sudan he took a part-time MA in colonial and post-colonial history and has since published a number of military history books.
Hurst’s work, cast, fabricated, drawn or written, often actively questions common opinion and official history and contrasts it with his own personal experience. Hurst’s enigmatic sculptures, collages and assemblages that result from these combined interests are instantly recognisable in form yet imbued with a poignant sense of the fragments of human life left behind after futile combat or disaster.”
Quote: Polly Bieleke, Pangolin London Gallery
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
1932: Born, Cairo, Egypt
1949-53: Ruskin School of Drawing, University of Oxford
1959-60: Goldsmiths College, University of London
1968-69: Royal College of Art, London (Sculpture Foundry)
1971-79: Lecturer I/C Sculpture Foundry, Chelsea School of Art
1979-81: Head of Sculpture, University of Ulster, Belfast
1982: Set up a sculpture foundry in Oxfordshire
1997-98: Royal Holloway College University of London, (MA in Modern History)
2002-04: Worked with Pangolin Editions on a book on bronze casting
EXHIBITIONS
1953: Young Contemporaries – RBA Galleries, London
1961: RA Summer Show and Zwemmer Gallery, London
1962: London Free Painters Group – Drian Gallery, Marble Arch
1963: ‘One Man Show’ – New Vision Centre Gallery, Marble Arch London
1964: ‘Two Person Show’ – Arnolfini Gallery, Clifton, Bristol
1965: ‘Two Person Show’ – Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
1965 – 1967: Arnolfini and Bear Lane – Sculpture and reliefs shown in various mixed exhibitions
1985: Sculpture And Reliefs – One Man Exhibit, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Gallery Belfast)
1985 – 1986: Northern Ireland Touring Exhibition –, Tom Caldwell Galleries, Belfast and Dublin; Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast
1986 – 1988: ‘Gathering Rites Group’ – Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford.
1986 – 1988: ‘Outsiders’ – Mixed Exhibition Gallerie Blumenhalle, Bonn, Germany
1986 – 1988: ‘Baule 8’ – Bank of Ireland, Dublin (Irish, English and Danish political artists)
1988: ‘Instruments of War’ – Armistice Anniversary, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
1990: ‘Baule 8’ – Mixed Exhibition (Goanese, Brazillian, Danish, Irish and English political artists), Southwark College London
1991: ‘Gathering Rites’ – Mixed Exhibition, Natural History Museum, London
1991: ‘Baule 8’ – Mixed Exhibition, Tour of Denmark (Copenhagen, Randers, Aarhus and Grena)
2002: ‘Sterling Stuff’ – Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, Gloucestershire
2003: ‘Sterling Stuff’ – Sigurjon Olafsson Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
2003: ‘Sterling Stuff’ – Royal Academy, London
2003: ‘Art for the Apocalypse’ – Freemasons Museum Gallery, Holborn, London
2005: ‘Sorti du Creuset’ (Out of the Melting Pot) – DEXIA Banque Parque National, Luxembourg (Pangolin Sculptors)
2006: ‘Sterling Stuff’ – Art Academy University of Beijing, China
2006: ‘Brunel Bicentennial’ – Beldam Gallery, Brunel University, London. (One man show)
2008 – 2009: ‘On Time’ – Biennial Mixed Exhibition, East Wing Gallery, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
2008 – 2009: ‘Sterling Stuff Two’ – Pangolin London, King’s Place, London
2009: ‘In the Mix’ – Mixed Exhibition, Pangolin London, King’s Place, London
2009: ‘Sculptors Prints’ – Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, Gloucestershire
2009: ‘Fire and Brimstone’ – Mixed Exhibition (16 sculptors working experimentally with cast metal in Pangolin Foundry), Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, Gloucestershire
2009: ‘The Visual Force’ – Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast. Curated by Dr Slavka Sverakova, University of Ulster.
2010: British Sculptors “Crucible One” – Gloucester Cathedral. Curated by Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, Gloucestershire
2011 – 2012: New Iron Age – The Pitt Rivers Museum and The Bullpen Foundry.
2012: Sculptors Drawings – Pangolin London, King’s Place, London
2013: “Stephen Hurst: Ypes The Great War and the Regilding of Memory” Retrospective, One Man Exhibit – In Flanders Fields Museum, Ieper (Ypres), Belgium
2014: ‘War Toys’ – One Man Exhibit, Pangolin London, King’s Place, London
2014: ’Back From the Front: Art, Memory and the Aftermath of War’ – Mixed exhibition curated by Professor Paul Gough, RWA, Bristol.
2014: British Sculptors “Crucible Two” – Gloucester Cathedral. Curated by Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, Gloucestershire
2016: ‘Spring Showcase’ – Pangolin London, King’s Place, London
2016: ‘Reproduction’ – Uganda High Commission
2016: 25th Anniversary Silver Exhibition – Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, Gloucestershire
2016 – 2017: ‘The War in Writing’ – Mixed Exhibition, In Flanders Fields Museum, Ieper (Ypres), Belgium
2022: ‘Back to the Cave’ – Mixed Exhibition, Forest of Dean Caves, Gloucestershire, UK
PUBLICATIONS
Metal Casting: Appropriate technology in the small foundry
Intermediate Technology Publications 1996. Reprinted 2000 & 2002
‘Colonel Gray and the Armoured Cars: The Malayan Police 1948 – 1952’
Working Paper 119. Centre for Southeast Asian Studies. Monash University, Victoria, Australia. 2003
‘Bronze Sculpture – Casting and Patination – Mud Fire & Metal’ (with photographs by Steve Russell)’
Schiffer Books, Pennsylvania, USA, 2005
‘The Public Schools Battalion in the Great War: Goodbye Piccadilly’
Pen and Sword Books Ltd, UK 2007
‘Famous Faces: Writers and Artists in the Spanish Civil War 1936 – 1939’
Pen and Sword Books Ltd. UK (Publication date October 2009)
‘Drawn from Life: The Ruskin Diaries 1949-1953”
Published by WarmPorch Publishing (2021)
Currently writing: ‘Fly on the Wall’ – Sequel to ‘Drawn from Life’
WarmPorch Publishing
LINKS
www.gallery-pangolin.com
www.pangolin-editions.com
www.pangolinlondon.com
www.kingsplace.co.uk
www.thebullpen.co.uk
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
www.alumni.ox.ac.uk
www.inflandersfields.be