Video
Ann Christopher on her work and inspirations
Ahead of her 2013 exhibition To Know Without Remembering at Pangolin London, Ann Christopher discusses the objects and images which inspire her practice and the works featured in the show.
Ann Christopher RA (b. 1947)
Christopher’s elegant and powerful sculpture and works on paper are the physical representation of decades of visual inquiry. Looking intently and with an innate curiosity Christopher draws inspiration from a broad range of visual sources: from soaring skyscrapers and modern architecture to rugged coastlines, plant structures and ancient artefacts combining a fearless modernity with an ancient timelessness. Throughout her career Christopher has remained dedicated to the artistic principles established in the 1960s by artists such as Sir Anthony Caro: that a sculpture can be considered a mysterious monument or an abstract ‘presence’, without being directly descriptive.
Ann Christopher was born in Watford in 1947 and lives and works near Bath. After attending Harrow School of Art she studied sculpture at the West of England College of Art, and became at the time the youngest female sculptor to be elected to the Royal Academy in 1980. Represented by Pangolin London, London and Rosenberg & Co, New York with recent solo exhibitions.
Christopher has completed commissions both in the UK and the USA and is represented in many public and private collections including those of the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo; British Museum, London; City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol; Chantry Bequest, London; Contemporary Art Society, London; Corcoran Legacy Collection, Washington DC, USA, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; Granville Holdings Plc, London; Gruss & Co, New York, USA; Holburne Museum, Bath; Linklaters, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Parabola Art Collection, Edinburgh; Royal Academy, London; Rwenzori Sculpture Foundation, Uganda; Stefansson Nef, Washington DC, USA; Talboys Bequest, Bristol.
Profile
Born: 1947 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality: British
Elected ARA: 21 May 1980
Elected RA: 7 December 1989
Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2023
Gender: Female
Preferred media: Sculpture and Printmaking
Works by Ann Christopher in the RA Collection
4 results
Works associated with Ann Christopher in the RA Collection
1 results
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My work is very much a visual diary of my physical and emotional life.
Ann Christopher RA
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Ann Christopher RA - Selected CV
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Recent solo exhibitions and commissions
2024 New Sculpture + Works on Paper, Pangolin London, Kings Place
2022 Ann Christopher & Dorothy Dehner, Rosenberg & Co, New York
2021 Broken Time, Gallery Pangolin, Chalford
2019 Edge + Line, Rosenberg & Co, New York
2018 Changing Spaces, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle Co. Mayo
2018 Sculpture at Maison Bras Laguiole, France
2016-17 All the Cages Have Open Doors, Pangolin London, Kings Place
2016 The Lines of Time, Tennant Gallery, Royal Academy
2014 Marks on the Edge of Space, Rabley Drawing Centre, Marlborough
2013 Pangolin, London
2010 Pangolin, London
2004 Medal for the British Art Medal Society, Jubilee Park, London
2002 2.2 m sculpture for private site near Albi, France
2001 Multiple edition sculpture for Wingfield Arts, Suffolk
2000 Towards the Sky - 5.5m corten sculpture at Portmarine, Portishead for Crest 2000 Nicholson (South West)
1999 Courcoux and Courcoux, Stockbridge, Royal West of England Academy, Still Line, 2.5m stone and stainless steel sculpture incorporating water for St Peter’s Hospital, Bristol (funded by John Pontin Trust)
1998 The Silence of Shadows - 3.3m bronze for private garden in Great Barrington, USA -
Recent group exhibitions
2023-24 If Not Now, When?, Saatchi Gallery, London
2023 If Not Now, When? Women in Sculpture in Britain 1960-2023, Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield
2022 Feather, Bones and Stones, Pangolin London, Kings Place, London
2020 Sculptors Drawings and Works on Paper, Pangolin London, Kings Place, London
2019 Parallel Lines – Drawing and Sculpture, The Lightbox, Woking
2017-18 The Sleeping Procession, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood
2017 ARK, Chester Cathedral (Gallery Pangolin)
2016-17 Small is Beautiful XXXIV, Flowers, Cork Street, London
2016 Made in Uganda, Museum of Uganda, Kampala, Uganda
2016 Lines + Colours, Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery, Gibraltar
2016 Lines and Colours – The Royal Academicians with Barbara Rae and Anne Desmet, Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery, Gibraltar -
Selected Collections
Bristol Schools Arts Services
Bristol University
British Museum
Chantrey Bequest
City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Contemporary Arts Society, London
Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC
Evelyn Stefansson Nef., Washington DC
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
Granville Holdings Plc, London
Gruss & Co., New York, USA
Linklaters & Paines, London
Prior’s Court School, Newbury
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Royal West of England Academy
Salisbury Art Gallery
Sharjah Art Museum, UAE
Talboys Bequest, Bristol
The John Creasey Museum
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![Ann Christopher, hardback catalogue]()
Ann Christopher hardback catalogue
This book looks at the work of Ann Christopher RA, a non-figurative sculptor who works primarily in cast bronze, stainless steel, silver and fabricated corten steel. Christopher’s elegant and understated works reveal connections with a vast spectrum of sources from across the globe, such as rock formations in Israel, fossils from the Cretaceous chalks of Hertfordshire, prehistoric standing stones in Avebury and early Aegean figurines.
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Associated archives
4 results
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Ann Christopher RA - Drawing - the Lines of Time
2016
Item RAA/PRE/5/2/552
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Wild Thing: Epstein/Gaudier-Brzeska/Gill
2009-2010
Item RAA/PRE/5/2/457
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Ann Christopher The Power of Place
2007-2008
Item RAA/PRE/5/2/422
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Ann Christopher RA, the power of place, general release
7 Dec 2007
Item RAA/PRE/2/1/510