Roy Kitchin

Roy Kitchin (6 December 1926 – 1997) was a British sculptor and art educator who worked primarily with steel. He was Lecturer in Sculpture at Newcastle University. He co-founded the Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture in Shropshire, England.

Kitchin was born in Peterborough. When his father’s confectionery business collapsed in 1936, the family relocated to Birmingham in the industrial West Midlands.

Kitchin completed his secondary education in the Quinton area of Birmingham and at the age of fourteen became an apprentice to the woodwork trade, specialising in joinery, constructing ammunitions boxes and correcting those of others that did not meet the stringent standards of the Ministry of Defence. It was whilst working as a joiner that he made his first attempts at carving the human figure. Reflecting on this early desire to carve, Kitchin has described how he chanced upon images of sculpture in the pages of the Encyclopædia Britannica his mother had bought for him to look at pictures of aircraft.

At the age of eighteen, with the Second World War in full momentum, Kitchin was conscripted to work in the coalmines as a ‘Bevin Boy’. Conditions in the mines proved particularly harsh and within only three days he went absent without leave. Following his eventual arrest and deportation to Ireland, Kitchin re-conscripted, putting his skills to use with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers with whom he served three years from 1945-48.

Later, reflecting on this period of his life with the R.E.M.E., Kitchin acknowledged it had not been entirely wasted. He had learnt many skills and techniques that would prove useful for his sculpture. Following his military discharge in 1948 Kitchin became a student of sculpture at Birmingham School of Art and Design, lasting only until the end of the first term. In that short period at college the Head of Sculpture William Bloye was so impressed by Kitchin’s abilities that he asked him to become his full-time assistant. Without the means to pay for the course Kitchin accepted the role. With Bloye, Kitchin gained experience working on large-scale sculptures and neo-classical architectural decoration.

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