Max Patté

Max Patté is a British artist known for his sculptures and for multimedia work using changing light and colour. thumb

Early life Patté was born in 1977 and raised in Gloucestershire. His father was a farm machinery importer and exporter and his mother was a teacher.

Career in New Zealand Patté moved from London to New Zealand in 2006 following a marriage break up. Patté was elected as an associate of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (now the Royal Society of Sculptors) in 2008. and in 2009 he was one of the judges of the World of Wearable Art Awards. In 2012 Charles Saatchi commissioned life-sized busts of himself and his then wife Nigella Lawson.

Notable works

Solace in the wind Patté's first public sculpture, Solace in the Wind, was installed as a temporary loan in Wellington, New Zealand in 2008. In 2018 Patté created 50 small-scale replicas of the statue to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Patté offered to donate the sculpture to the city, but Wellington Waterfront (a Wellington City Council organisation that managed Wellington's waterfront area) declined the offer. It was then bought by Sir Ian McKellen and installed at his home beside the Thames in London. Guillermo del Toro has another version at his home in Los Angeles. Patté made several trips to Staglands Wildlife Reserve to sketch Clydesdale horses then modelled the sculptures in clay. The clay models were scanned and the data sent to a foundry in China. The foundry made full-scale polystyrene models which Patté then covered in a plasticine skin to add finishing details. The foundry then cast the horses in iron and they were shipped to New Zealand.