Bernard Schottlander
Born in 1924 in Mainz, Germany, Bernard Schottlander arrived in England in 1939. During the war, he worked in structural engineering as a welder. He then took sculpture classes at Leeds College of Art, and later, thanks to a grant from the Anglo-French Art Centre in St John's Wood, he studied sculpture for a year in London. His training as a welder would play a significant role in his work.
Bernard Schottlander defines himself as an interior designer and an exterior sculptor. He set up his workshop in North London with the help of his assistant, George Nash. George Nash had a solid background acquired in the workshops of the British Royal Air Force. Bernard Schottlander's work is thus akin to that of an artist searching for new forms, each piece being handmade and produced in very limited series.
In 1963, he decided to focus solely on sculpture, and from 1965 he taught metalwork at St Martins School. That same year, he exhibited with the group Six Artists at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. In 1966, he held his first solo exhibition at the Hamilton Galleries in London.
Movement is the source of inspiration for all of Schottlander's work: an artist, engineer, and tinkerer, he developed an ingenious pivot-counterweight system, using flexible yet resistant metal rods. Projected into the air like an acrobat's creation, the spun aluminum reflector is innovative: the sculptor's eye shapes it in a helical motion, where symmetry pulls at asymmetry. His light fixtures, playing on the tension between balance and imbalance, revealing the secrets of emptiness and fullness, like mobiles, seem to defy the laws of gravity. The poetry of the object invites reverie: elegance on a tightrope...
Mantis Archives
Sculpture by Bernard Schottlander
Mantis Archives
1924 - Born in Mainz, Germany
1939 - Departure for England
1942 - Entered Leeds College of Arts
1949-51 - Studies industrial design at LCC Central School of Arts & Crafts
1951 - Creation of the Mantis lamp series
1964 - First exhibition of sculptural works at the Architectural Association in London
1965 - Joined St Martin's School in London as a professor
1966 - Exhibition at the Hamilton Galleries in London
1972 - Exhibition of monumental works at London's Park Royal
Sculpture by Bernard Schottlander
Mantis Archives
Mantis Archives