Kenneth Draper

Kenneth Draper (b.1944) is one of the most innovative artists of his generation. For over six decades he has worked equally with sculpture, painting and drawing. He describes himself as an ‘abstract artist working from the landscape’, reflecting the spirit of places where he has lived, worked or travelled, from London’s urban landscape to India, the United States, northern England, France, Egypt and Menorca. Born in Derbyshire, Draper studied at the Royal College of Art, rapidly establishing a place in the London art scene. He was the youngest artist to exhibit in British Sculptors ’72 at the Royal Academy, having held his first solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery three years earlier. Colour, always an integral aspect of his sculpture, came to the fore in works inspired by a visit to India, in large pastel drawings, and in three-dimensional works exploring gravity, illusion and structural ambiguity. Draper’s recent works on paper range from enigmatic, interior-focused studies in pencil to dazzling colour pieces that further blur the boundaries between the drawn and the constructed. Kenneth Draper: On the Edge of Sculpture is the first monograph to address the full range of an artist whose legacy is a fearlessly exhilarating exploration of landscape and the forces of nature.