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Born: 24 April 1928, Leeds, Yorkshire, UK
Elected ARA: 25 April 1968
Elected RA: 15 June 1972
Category of Membership: Sculptor
Ralph Brown RA, 'Mother and Child', 1954
Ralph Brown studied at Leeds School of Art from 1948 to 1951, then at Hammersmith School of Art in London from 1951 to 1952. He subsequently studied at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1956, including a period working in Paris with Zadkine in 1954. He taught at Bournemouth College of Art from 1956 to 1958, then as a tutor at the Royal College of Art from 1958 to 1969. He was also a part-time teacher at the West of England College of Art and several provincial art schools until 1973, when he gave up teaching and moved to France, returning to live in Gloucestershire in 1976.
Brown’s first solo shows were at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1961 and 1963 and later at Browse & Darby in 1979. These exhibitions led to many further solo exhibitions, both nationally and in France, Germany, Austria and the USA. A full retrospective of his work was held at the Henry Moore Centre in Leeds in 1988. His work has also been shown in many key group exhibitions in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan.
Brown was awarded a Royal College of Art Scholarship to Greece in 1955, and in that year his bronze 'Mother and Child' was bought by Henry Moore. In 1957 he won a Boise Scholarship to Italy. In 1972 he was elected Royal Academician and was Professor of Sculpture at Salzburg Festival Summer Academy.
Ralph Brown RA, 'Queen' in Gloucester Cathedral Cloisters, 2009
Public collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland
Albright-Knox Collection, Buffalo, USA
Arts Council of Great Britain
Bristol Art Gallery
Chantrey Bequest
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Halifax Art Gallery, Yorkshire
Huddersfield Art Gallery
Leeds City Art Gallery
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Norfolk Contemporary Art Society
Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Netherlands
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Royal College of Art, London
Salzburg State Museum, Austria
Southport Art Gallery
Stuyvesant Foundation, South Africa
Tate Gallery, London
Sculptures on public sites
Harlow New Town: Market Square and
Ladyshott Common Room, Commonwealth Institute, London
Kodak House, Hemel Hempstead
Newnham College, Cambridge
Jersey Zoo
Sculpture at Goodwood, West Sussex
Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk
