brian taylor

Brian Taylor was born in Sutton on December 22nd 1935. He was educated at Epsom School of Art, where Richard, now Sir Richard Rogers, the architect was amoung his contemporaries. While there, still only 16, he was given his first exhibition at Zwemmer`s gallery. He showed dramatically conceived linocuts, including "The four horsemen of the Apocalyps". From 1954 to 1958 he studied at the Salde School of Art, where his teachers included Reg Butler and F.E. McWilliams. Paul de Monchaux, Kim Lim, Michael Sandle and Yolanda Sonnabend were fellow students. At the Slade, Brian worked consistently from close oberservation of life, developing an intuitive and uncoventionally expressive reponse to what he saw. Henry Moore`s praise for Brians independent vision marked a turning point in the way his work was perceived by the school. In 1956 he carried off most of the student prizes and, at the end of his final year, was awarded a first class Diploma in Fine Art and a Post-Graduate Schlorship. In 1958 he received the Rome Scholarship. His experience in Rome was the most formative of his career. As he said, he became "completely immersed in last Archaic Greek and Truscan sculpture and admired greatly the sculture of Medardo Rosso. In his first year at the British Academy in Rome he met Anthony Blunt, Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, who recognised Brians aspirations, encouraging him with the gift of a block of travertine stone. From this he carved his first standing figure. In 1960 he was given a one person sculpture exhibition at the Babuinetta Gallery in Rome where he showed maquettes of the figure carved from travertine, a greyhound dog and portraits. At the conclusion of his three year scholarship Brian stayed of in Rome working as an assistant in the studio of Emilio Greco, while continuing to strenghten his own ideas. He was given a further sols show at the Via dell Corso Gallersey in 1962.