Robert Clatworthy

Robert Ernest Clatworthy RA ( 1928 – 2015) was a British sculptor and teacher of art. He was head of the fine art department at the Central School of Art and Design in London from 1971 to 1975, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1973.

Clatworthy was born at Bridgwater, Somerset, he studied the violin as a boy and was uncertain whether to become an artist or a musician.  In 1945–46 he studied at the West of England College of Art, and then did National Service. From 1947 to 1949 he was at the Chelsea School of Art in London, where he studied under Bernard Meadows, and then in 1950–51 went to the Slade School of Fine Art. He worked briefly as an assistant to Henry Moore; it was Moore who persuaded him to attend the Slade rather than the Royal College of Art.

In the early 1950s Clatworthy was, with Anthony Caro, Elisabeth Frink and Eduardo Paolozzi, among the young sculptors brought in by Frank Martin to teach in the new sculpture department at Saint Martin’s School of Art. In 1956 he joined The London Group. From 1960 until 1972 he taught at the Royal College of Art and, between 1967 and 1971, also at the West of England College of Art. He was a governor of Saint Martin’s from 1970 to 1971, and then, until 1975, head of the fine art department at Central Saint Martins.

He was elected a Royal Academician on 26 April 1973.