Roger Ackling, British Sculptor, 1947-2014

Roger Ackling, 2002 Photo: Pete Moss Via: National Portrait Gallery
Roger Ackling, 2002 Photo: Pete Moss Via: National Portrait Gallery

Roger Ackling died last Thursday, June 5, following a prolonged illness. Ackling was one of several artists who reinvented sculpture in Britain in the mid-20th century. A friend and colleague of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, he studied at Central Saint Martins in the 1960s and went on to explore the sculptural possibilities of the natural world.

He’s best known for intricate wooden pieces, on which he drew by focusing the sunlight through a hand-held magnifying glass. Yet for all his works’ ritualistic undertones, Ackling always remained matter-of-fact in his approach to art. “I’m not a symbolic artist,” he once said, “it is what it is at the time of making it.”

Following his first solo show at Lisson Gallery in 1976, Ackling exhibited extensively from Japan to the US. His works are featured in many prestigious collections including the British Museum, the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.

Share

Article topics
Subscribe or log in to read the rest of this content.

You are currently logged into this Artnet News Pro account on another device. Please log off from any other devices, and then reload this page continue. To find out if you are eligible for an Artnet News Pro group subscription, please contact [email protected]. Standard subscriptions can be purchased on the subscription page.

Log In