TCC Sculpture Blog: Phillip King

Phillip King was born in Tunis in 1934. He studied sculpture at St Martin's School of Art from 1957-58. King started his career of works in the 1950’s by using small and made in clay and plaster. In 1960 he traveled to Greece and was inspired by their classical architecture. He then made drawings which helped him develop an abstract approach to sculptural form. He later moved from clay and plaster and started using fiberglass and color in 1962. In the 1980’s he used this figurative way of sculpture and made large scale projects using a mix of clay and newspaper. Later he began teaching as a professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art from 1980-90. Continuing on in 1990’s, King spent time in Japan learning to make ceramics on a very large scale. In 1994 he retired from his job at the Royal Academy of Art to continue his sculpture full time.