Bernard Meadows was a British modernist sculptor. Meadows was Henry Moore's first assistant; then part of the Geometry of Fear school, a loose-knit group of British sculptors whose prominence was established at the 1952 Venice Biennale; a Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art for 20 years; and returned to assist Moore again in his last years.
He returned to Moore's studio after the war, and helped Moore with his marble sculptureThree Standing Figures 1947 and his 1949 bronze Family Group. He went on to find acclaim. An elm figure was exhibited in the open air sculpture exhibition at Battersea Park in 1951, alongside the Festival of Britain, which went to the Tate Gallery. He exhibited in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale a year later, alongside a new generation of British sculptors, including Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick and Eduardo Paolozzi. Their angular artworks contrasted with the more rounded styles of their seniors, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, and they were dubbed by art critic Herbert Read as the "Geometry of Fear". He held his first solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in 1957, with four more in the decade to 1967. He also exhibited at the São Paulo Biennale in 1957, Documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959, and the 1964 Venice Biennale. He exhibited from New York City to Tokyo and produced a stream of public and private art in Britain and beyond. His edgy pieces often based on animals and seemingly carved from shrapnel could imply Cold War menace. Meadows' work titled Public Sculpture, a controversial assembly of stone blocks and balls of dripping and dimpled metal, was commissioned for the Eastern Daily Press in 1968 at Prospect House, Norwich. The sculpture is on permanent display outside the building together with prints and drawings in the Prospect House foyer. Also on display an illustrated panel telling the story of Bernard Meadows and Public Sculpture. Teaching commitments took precedence over his own work. He taught at the Royal College of Art from 1948, and was Professor of Sculpture from 1960 to 1980, where his students included Robert Clatworthy and Elisabeth Frink. He was a member of the Fine Arts Commission from 1971 to 1976. He returned to assist Moore at Perry Green, Hertfordshire from 1977, after Moore's health started to fail, and continued to help his mentor's estate after Moore's death in 1986, becoming an acting director of the Henry Moore Foundation. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park held a retrospective exhibition of Meadows’ work for his 80th birthday in 1995, with a second retrospective at Gimpel Fils in London, the first exhibitions of his works for 15 years.
Private life
He married Marjorie Winifred Payne in 1939. They had two daughters. He died in London.
