Edward Allington
Sculptor who inspired Rachel Whiteread and was best known for his ironic take on classical themes
EDWARD ALLINGTON, who has died aged 66, was a sculptor and professor at University College London who taught and inspired some of Britain’s most famous modern sculptors.
He was best known for his part in the 1980s New British Sculpture movement, which was characterised by Tim Woods in his book Beginning Postmodernism as “(a) a synthesis of pop and kitsch, (b) a bricolage (assemblage) of the decaying UK urban environment and the waste of consumer society, (c) an exploration of the way in which objects are assigned meanings, and (d) a play of colour, wit and humour.” But Allington will also be remembered for the young artists he taught at UCL’S Slade School of Fine Art and other colleges over nearly four decades, including the Turner Prize winner Rachel Whiteread, who credited him with teaching her casting when she was a student at Brighton.
Allington’s sculpture was based on drawing, and he was known in particular for his use of classical themes and imagery. This he often invested with an ironic, postmodern twist using found materials such as plastic fruit and vegetables or toys and frequently incorporating subtle puns or allusions.
In the early 1980s he produced “cornucopia” sculptures featuring golden shells, seemingly magically suspended in the air, spilling plastic fruit and other items on to the floor. His
The Groan as a Wound Weeps featured a cataract of plastic tomatoes spilling from a “floating” curl of purple drapery, while Tame Time / Aphrodite Ad Infinitum reinterpreted the classical image of beauty for the consumer age with a stream of identical plaster-cast goddesses tumbling out of a column.
For many years Allington collected unwanted old leather and cloth-bound company ledgers filled with handwritten columns of accounts, once vital but now long redundant, several of which he turned into works of art, creating recesses in the pages to contain small sculptures – “ideal for concealing within a library for illicit enjoyment,” as he explained.
Allington’s work was exhibited widely in America, Japan and throughout Europe and is represented in major public, private and corporate collections, including the Arts Council, the Tate Gallery, the Henry Moore Institute, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. He also completed major public and private commissions in Britain, Germany and France. His work was included in the group exhibition “Objects and Sculpture” at the ICA in 1981 and “The Sculpture Show” at the Hayward Gallery in 1983.
Edward Thomas Allington was born on June 24 1951 at Troutbeck Bridge, Westmorland, and studied at Lancaster College of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and at the Royal College of Art.
He taught at the Slade from 1990, becoming head of graduate sculpture in 2000 and Professor of Sculpture in 2006. His depth and breadth of knowledge ranged from classical antiquity to contemporary automobile design, and he gave lectures on topics ranging from Zombies to Kitsch. Other artists who were taught by Allington include the Turner Prize nominees Angela De La Cruz and Tomoko Takahashi.
Allington’s sculptural interests and depth of knowledge also led to interdisciplinary initiatives such as a collaboration with UCL’S Archaeology department, looking at the relationship between 3D digital scanning and mould-making for bronze casting.
Away from his university duties, Allington was a self-confessed petrolhead. Last year he finally completed the restoration of his beloved early Harley Davidson racer, which is currently on loan to the National Motorcycle Museum. A week before his death he cheered himself up by buying a 1978 MV Augusta 125 from his hospital bed.
He is survived by his partner Asako, and his son and daughter by Julia Wood.
Edward Allington, born June 24 1951, died September 21 2017