Making An Impression, Maschera Nobile and Public Monuments with Philip Jackson

Sculpture Vulture

Today, Lucy Branch talks to Philip Jackson, an award winning, prolific sculptor who has created some of our most well-known and well-loved public sculptures particularly in the UK but also elsewhere in the world including The Bomber Command in Green Park, Bobby Moore at Wembley Stadium, The Manchester United ‘Trinity’ sculpture, The Jersey Liberation Sculpture to name only a few. His creativity knows no bounds as he does an extraordinary amount of private work and exhibitions and in that work shows an entirely different side to his creativity. His distinctive Venice-inspired sculptures are brooding and ominous and for me, who loves the dark side of art, endlessly fascinating.

Join us and BE INSPIRED BY SCULPTURE. You can find images of Philip Jackson’s work and a transcription of the interview at Sculpture Vulture Blog - SCULPTURE VULTURE

If you are looking for a new book, the novel mentioned in this interview is currently available free from Sculpture Vulture.

This podcast was brought to you by Antique Bronze

Snippet from the interview:

Lucy: I began our discussion today by asking him, if he'd always been creative?

Philip: I think I probably have, yes. I mean, I sort of just decided to be a sculptor at the age of eleven. So I suppose you could say that's for a very long time.

Lucy: And so was it someone at home that encouraged that, or school?

Philip: No, I went to boarding school very early. My parents were in West Africa. My father was in the colonial service. And so I used to go out to Africa every summer, but in the Christmas and Easter holidays, I would be farmed out to my grandmother or my great aunt. They were quite elderly so I had to, as it were, find my own amusement. But they did have very good libraries of books. And so I spent quite a lot of time reading. And I discovered Graeco-Roman sculpture and I thought it was the most extraordinary thing that these wonderful things could be made by the hand of man. And then, I think at the age of 11, I bought what I think was probably my first book, which was a secondhand book on sculpture that was being done by people that were actually still alive. So I suppose the penny dropped that, you know, this wonderful thing called sculpture had been done since Graeco-Roman times and before, right up to the present time. And I thought, well, you know, that's what I want to do. So I suppose that's really how it came about.

Lucy: Right. Did you then start to pursue it more?

Philip: Yes. I mean, my school really didn't teach art in the way that schools teach art these days. And so I, sort of, ploughed a fairly lonely furrow to try and find out how you carve things, how you model things, and all that sort of thing. And then at the appropriate age, I was staying with my great aunt and I said to her, "Look, you know, I think I want to go to art school." And so I went for an interview and everything and got in. And, you know, so it's gone from there.