Reg Butler

Reg Butler 1913-1981

An English sculptor. Butler studied and lectured at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from 1937 to 1939. He was a conscientious objector during the Second World War, being exempted from military service conditional upon setting up a small blacksmith business repairing farm implements. In 1953 he won an international competition for a monument to the ‘Unknown Political Prisoner’ and became one of the best known sculptors during the 1950s.

During the 1960s Butler’s production decreased to around three or four sculptures a year, taking young women as his main subject, distorting their anatomy to stress their sensuousness. These late sculptures frequently took years to complete.