Clive Barker

CLIVE BARKER

Clive Barker is a British Pop artist known for his metal sculptures that are cast from original objects. Born in 1940 in Luton, United Kingdom, he attended the Luton College of Technology and Art, but left school to work on the assembly line of the Vauxhall Motors company. After moving to London in 1961, Barker worked as the assistant of the artist Richard Smith. Around this time, he began producing some of his first sculptures. The experience of working with machine-made objects inspired these early works, which like cars, were executed in leather and chrome-plated metal. In 2001, Barker was invited by fellow Pop artist Peter Blake to exhibit alongside members of the Young British Artists in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. The artist currently lives and works in Hampstead, United Kingdom. Today, Barker’s works are held in the collections of the British Museum in London, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Städtische Kunsthalle in Mannheim, Germany, among others.