Richard Deacon, 1949

Richard Deacon graduated from Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, where he concentrated on performance based work. Afterwards, he studied for a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, while also studying art history part-time at the Chelsea School of Art. In 1987 he was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize.

In the course of his career, Deacon has worked with different media and dimensions. His body of work includes small-scale pieces, suitable for showing in art galleries, as well as monumental works shown in sculpture parks. One of his works’ dominant motifs is the interaction between interior and exterior spaces. Deacon considers the unoccupied, “negative” space in the center or between the elements of his works to be essential to their final forms. In his sculptures, empty space often functions like “positive” forms and emptiness becomes just another medium, like ceramic, wood or steel. Interested in performance art since he was a young student, Deacon often creates works that allude to the body.

“House Version”, with its stainless steel tubes of varying lengths, bonded together, is reminiscent of molecular models. The sense of movement, never lacking in Deacon’s work, is conveyed by the roughness of the surface. The crude, sandpapered finish reflects light in myriad directions, presenting an endless show of distorted colors and shapes.