Peter King's untimely death at the age of twenty-nine has meant that
he has been largely omitted from the history of 1950s British art. Now
his work is being made available to a wider audience, through a
digitising project carried out by the artist's son, Dr Mike King, at
London Metropolitan University, and funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council.
King was undoubtedly a prolific artist whose exceptional talent was
recognised by Henry Moore, who appointed him as his assistant along
with Anthony Caro. King was part of a group of artists associated with
Moore's studio, with the teaching team at St Martin's School of Art,
with artists living at the Abbey Art Centre in London, and with Victor
Musgrave's Gallery One in Soho. He received the Boise Travelling
Scholarship and funding from the BFI for an animated film, and
exhibited the film and his work across Europe.
King's central theme was the human body. It appears, frenzied or
still, as standing figures, mother-and-child groups, hybrid or
masquerade figures; rendered in polished wood with fluid curves, in
tough cement proclaiming its modernity and in the intricate chunky
wood carvings that are King's signature pieces.
That they contain echoes of art as varied as works by Henry Moore,
Germaine Richier, Javanese shadow puppets and Cycladic marbles marks
him as a man of the early post-war years whose work is profoundly
eloquent of that period's doubts, fears and concern with humanity.
A sample collection with 51 entries is now available to search online
at VADS: http://www.vads.ahds.ac.uk/search.php
When published, the full archive will contain over 1,000 entries,
giving a detailed picture of the life and work of the artist.
For more information about the archive, visit:
http://www.vads.ahds.ac.uk/collections/PKA.html
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