Thom Puckey

alt=Foto of life size statuario marble sculpture with a black background. The sculpture is of a bed, with a naked young woman laying down, taking a selfie with a photo camera. Beside her on the bed lay large military weapons Figure on bed with Camera and Weapons by Thom Puckey, statuario marble, carved from a single block. Dimensions - 206 x 104 x 77 cm Thomas William (Thom) Puckey (Bexleyheath, England, 23 May 1948 ) is a British sculptor living in Amsterdam and Tuscany. He was awarded a master's degree in 1975 at the Royal College of Art, after studying fine art at Croydon College of Art. He moved to the Netherlands in 1979. He has shown his work in solo exhibitions at various well-known galleries and museums in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Italy.

He has taught art at several art academies in the Netherlands, including the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (1987 -1995) as a sculpture tutor, and AKV St. Joost (1997 - 2013) as a fine art tutor. and commissioned public sculptures are prominent in several cities in the Netherlands. In 2017 he completed a monument to Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, placed opposite the parliament buildings in The Hague.

In 2013 he designed a 5 euro commemorative coin in the Netherlands with the Peace Palace as subject.

In 1986 Puckey was awarded the Sandberg Prize (Netherlands) for Fine Art by the city of Amsterdam. Another of their highlights was their five days and nights long project 'A Prediction' at De Appel in Amsterdam (1978).

Sculpture Since 1983 he has worked as a sculptor, first with optical/abstract sculptures. Later his sculptures became increasingly more figurative, his recent bronze and particularly marble sculptures strongly referring to 19th-century Realism. The models for these laborious works have always been specific people, and traditional methods of casting, carving, and finishing were used in their production.

The realistically modeled or carved female nudes, precisely executed down to the most intimate detail, in striking poses with weapons, are depicted on everyday objects such as mattresses, pillows and furniture. The contrast between the nudity referring to classical antiquity, and the brutal-looking contemporary military technology collapses classical studio techniques with art-historical legacies and contemporary political implications.