Alan Ingham was born to an English father and New Zealand mother in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1920. After studying sculpture at East Sydney Technical College, in 1949 he travelled to London, where he joined the central School of Arts and Crafts part time, studying sculpture and drawing. In 1951 he started to work as an assistant to Henry Moore, producing a large reclining figure for him for the 1951 Festival of Britain, among other castings, before returning to New Zealand in 1954 and relocating to Sydney, Australia in 1956.
Sculptor Alan Ingham was born on 19 August 1920 in Christchurch, New Zealand. His father was an English labourer who had emigrated from Lancashire, while his mother was from New Zealand. Ingham studied art at the Christchurch School of Art under the English sculptor Francis Shurrock (1887–1977), but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. He served with the New Zealand Air Force ground staff from 1941–46, afterwards moving to Sydney, Australia, where he studied sculpture at East Sydney Technical College under Lyndon Dadswellin, gaining his Diploma of Fine Arts in 1949.
In order to expand his artistic horizons, later the same year Ingham travelled to Europe via London. He later recalled: 'I’d planned my European tour by searching through my books of sculpture and finding where they are located [...] but constantly found other things of course, small Etruscan bronzes for example, that hadn’t been photographed or published. This opened up a whole new world to for me' (International Art Centre Catalogue, n.p.). Upon his arrival in London with £20 in his pocket, he found work making plaster shop fittings, a monotonous occupation in which he had to turn out hundreds of plaster figures. Ingham subsequently won a scholarship from Bird's Charity, a fund administered by the Royal Academy of Arts which awarded him a grant of £100 and enabled him to devote his attention solely to his art. He joined the Central School of Arts and Crafts part time, studying sculpture and drawing. An Australian school friend and fellow émigré artist, Oliffe Richmond, was working for Henry Moore, and when he left the position he suggested Ingham could take his place; Moore agreed to meet Ingham and eventually employed him in 1951. The first job Ingham worked on for Moore was a large reclining figure (10 feet) for the 1951 Festival of Britain. Ingham produced a form of the figure from an 18-inch maquette, using a steel frame, and the process was filmed over weeks by the BBC. Ingham and Moore got along well: Ingham even babysat Moore’s daughter and was often invited to his house for tea, when he also met Moore's eclectic and international group of friends, including writer and art critic, Sir Herbert Read; Sir William Walton; Le Corbusier; émigré, Walter Gropius; sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and Nancy Cunnard. After the success of Festival of Britain figure, Moore wanted to try lead casting, but ran into technical difficulties as the forms were too large, in particular the enlargement of the models of Moore’s Helmet Head. Moore encouraged Ingham to visit a foundry to see how the process was carried out, after which Ingham designed a special kiln for the moulds, similar to that of Gaskin’s foundry in Chelsea, as well as other devices to overcome the technical challenges of large-scale casting. Ingham was then able to employ the same technique for bronze casting for Moore. Ingham later recalled that ‘The worst part of the result was that every cast was successful, and thus I was condemned to become a sculptor/caster for the rest of my life. Bronze casting is slow and laborious and cuts down on your production of sculpture. My first advice to anyone who asks me how to do bronze casting is to tell them to have somebody else do it' (Ingham website).
While in London, Ingham mixed with other Australian émigré artists and in particular he became friends with the painter Guy Warren. He also exhibited his won work: In 1952 his bronze Seated Figure was included in the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition and the following year he contributed two sculptures to the Australian Artist`s Association Exhibitions at the RWS Galleries. Ingham also exhibited with The London Group (1952) and at the Leicester Galleries (1953). Apart from the Festival of Britain Reclining Figure, the main works completed with Moore were King and Queen, the Time Life Building's exterior carvings in London's Bond Street, and the Helmet series. Although these were significant years in Ingham’s career, as Moore became increasingly famous, working for him became less satisfying and Ingham began to feel 'like an automaton, churning out another person’s work' (Ingham website).
After five years in England, Ingham returned to his native New Zealand in 1954 and built a small bronze foundry near Auckland, before moving to Sydney in 1956. For the rest of his life, he lived and worked in Newport, on Sydney’s northern beaches, where he set up a studio foundry there similar to the one he had established with Moore, and his bronze casting for other sculptors was in high demand. He also carried out his own commissions has well as non-commissioned works. Ingham also taught part time at art colleges in Sydney and exhibited widely. Alan Ingham died in Sydney, Australia on 13 March 1994. His work is not currently represented in UK public collections.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Alan Ingham]
Publications related to [Alan Ingham] in the Ben Uri Library