Benno Schotz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benno Schotz (born 28 August 1891 Arensburg - died 11 October 1984 Glasgow) was an Estonian-born Scottish artist.

1 Career

[edit] Career

[edit] Engineering

Schotz emigrated to Glasgow in 1912 and worked as an engineer in the Clyde shipyards and worked at John Brown's shipyard during the Second World War.

[edit] Sculpture

Schotz became a full time sculptor in 1923. From this point onwards his reputation grew and he became a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy, head of sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art, and eventually was appointed the Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1963. His pupils included the artist Hannah Frank.

He worked until a few weeks before his death at the age of 93. He was a committed Zionist, a Jew, and proud of his adopted Scotland.

[edit] Works

Schotz's work included figure compositions, religious sculptures, semi-abstracts and modelled portraits and are to be found in museums and private collections worldwide. His bust of James Maxton is on public display at the Maxton remembrance garden in Barrhead near Paisley. Other publicly-accessible work includes The Psalmist (1974) in the JT Honeyman Memorial Garden of Kelvingrove Park, the Joseph Black Memorial (1953) at the University of Glasgow , the Painting and Sculpture reliefs on the Mercat Building (1928-9) and the Stations of the Cross sculptures in St. Charles' Parish Church North Kelvinside, all in Glasgow.He was responsible for the repair on the bridge sculpture at Kelvingrove Park beside the now refurbished art gallery and museum. He lived in the west end of Glasgow at Kirklee and was a familiar figure with his black beret,to the Saturday shoppers on Byres Road.