Paul de Monchaux was born in 1934 in Montreal, Canada. He began his art education in New York, USA, before moving to London in 1955 to continue his studies. De Monchaux soon established himself as a sculptor working primarily in abstraction, with numerous public commissions across the UK, and also working in art education at the highest level..
Sculptor Paul de Monchaux was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1934. He began his formal training at the Art Students League in New York, USA, before moving to London in 1955 to attend the Slade School of Fine Art. Under the instruction of Alfred Gerrard, he thrived in a rigorous academic environment that contrasted with what he considered the looser standards of the American system. After graduating in 1958, he briefly taught at the Nigerian College of Technology in Zaria, before taking up posts back in London at Goldsmiths’ College and at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, where he served first as Head of Sculpture (1965 to 1983) and later as Head of Fine Art (1984 to 1986). Between 1977 and 1982 he was the Chairman of the Faculty of Sculpture at The British School at Rome. He retired from teaching in 1986 to dedicate himself fully to sculpture.
Throughout his career, de Monchaux has explored form, structure and rhythm through various materials, such as granite, stone, bronze and wood. His sculptures often balance geometric precision with improvisational freedom. Though abstract, his forms rarely feel cold; instead, they carry a lyrical, musical quality that stems from a deep engagement with process, geometry and spatial relationships. He speaks of sculpture as a way of making the invisible visible, drawing attention not only to form, but to the spaces within and between objects. De Monchaux’s mature works reveal a commitment to structure and variation, echoing ancient architectural principles as much as jazz improvisation. His use of geometry, he insists, is not symbolic in itself but gains resonance through thoughtful combinations and contrasts.
Over the course of a long career, de Monchaux has been commissioned to create numerous public artworks across the UK. His early project Mnemonic (1984) for Colchester Hospital explored themes of memory, while Time Benches (1990), installed at both the Gateshead Garden Festival and Euston Station in London, fused functionality with meditative design. His piece Symmetry (1994), a memorial to First World War poet Wilfred Owen is located at Shrewsbury Abbey and was commissioned to mark the centenary of the poet’s birth. In 1998, de Monchaux was commissioned to create a series of granite sculptures for Oozells Square in Birmingham, a project that received a Civic Trust Award. Song (2004), inspired by Winston Churchill’s oratory and originally displayed at Westminster Hall, consists of twenty interlocking oak forms and now belongs to the Henry Moore Institute collection. In each of these works, form responds to site, memory, and history. In later years, de Monchaux's works have become increasingly architectural in tone, often referencing ancient columns, altars, and mnemonic devices. For example, the four-metre-tall Enclosure (2000) in Southampton frames key sightlines through Watts Park, while Breath (2011) in Norwich juxtaposes solidity and fragility to honour the threshold between life and death, memory and forgetting. His 2007 sculpture Silence, installed in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, commemorates the forced labourers who built German fortifications during the Second World War. His commission Girton Column (2012) was created for Girton College, Univeristy of Cambridge and shows a cylindrical structure that echoes ancient forms while responding to the landscape of the college grounds.
Despite only receiving public recognition relatively late in his career, and holding his first solo show in 2013, de Monchaux has since enjoyed increasing visibility. His solo exhibitions include Fixing Memory (2013), Ten Columns (2016), and Volutes (2019), all in London, as well as Formation at The Frestonian Gallery in 2024. In 2020, he took part in the joint show Correspondences with painter Tess Jaray, reflecting on their fifteen-year exchange of letters. His group exhibitions span decades, from Notices at the Camden Arts Centre, London (1979), and the Whitechapel Open and Hayward Gallery’s The Sculpture Show in the 1980s to recent editions of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In 2019, a monograph on his work was published by Ridinghouse. De Monchaux has also been a member of The London Group, exhibiting with the from the 1960s to 1980s.
Paul de Monchaux lives and works in South East London. He is married to the printmaker Ruth de Monchaux. Their daughters, Cathy and Elizabeth, are both sculptors. His works are held in UK public collections including the Contemporary Art Society (CAS), Henry Moore Institute, and Leeds Museums and Galleries. Photographs of his studio and workshops can be found in the University of Arts London Digital Collections. His public sculptures are located in Much Park Street in Coventry, Watts Park in Southampton, Les Charrières Malorey on Jersey, St Peter’s Street in Norwich and Shrewsbury Abbey in Shrewsbury.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Paul de Monchaux]
Publications related to [Paul de Monchaux] in the Ben Uri Library