EXWORTH, Ray

1930 - 2015

Raymond Charles Exworth was born at 7 Wroxham Road, Ipswich on 18 March 1930, the eldest of the five sons of Charles William Exworth (5 December 1902-1985), moulder in an iron foundry, and his wife Ivy Elsie née Bennett (11 March 1905-1998), who married at Ipswich in 1927. Ray was educated at Northgate Grammar School in Ipswich and after a brief period as an apprentice engineer in a foundry and as a meteorologist, Ray entered Ipswich School of Art in 1951. Following a visit to the Musée Rodin in Paris, the effect of which he described as ‘like a religious conversion’, he resolved to become a sculptor. In 1955 he entered the Royal College of Art where he distinguished himself, being awarded Royal Scholar in 1956, and a travelling scholarship in 1958. He married at Kensington, London in 1959, Susan Kalman and moved to Heather Bell Cottage, Cornwall, with Exworth starting a sculpture department at Falmouth School of Art. He then taught part-time at the Royal College of Art and was visiting lecturer at several other art colleges. He won three Arts Council awards and had a solo exhibition 'Felixstowe Remembered', as well as other sculptures and drawings, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in February 1975 also exhibiting at the Chappel Galleries, Essex in 1992 and in the same year included in 'Artists from Cornwall' at the Royal West of England Academy. He regularly displayed his work in Plymouth Arts Centre and the Royal Cornwall Museum. Raymond Charles Exworth died in Cornwall Hospital on 13 January 2015.

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Works by This Artist