Timeline

Peter King was born in 1928 - his mother was a schoolteacher and his father employed in a variety of trades, such as window-dressing, involving both manual and artistic skills. Peter inherited this interest for making things, experimenting at an early age with plaster. His artistic potential was soon acknowledged and he was enrolled at Wimbledon School of Art.

After leaving he signed up with Guidici, the monumental stonemasons, and worked on a restoration project for the Houses of Parliament. He also worked for Sir Charles Wheeler, after which he moved to the Abbey Art Centre in North London, which had been founded by collector William Ohly as an artists' commune. Ohly also set up the Berkeley Galleries which became an outlet for the talent at the Abbey Art Centre.

While at the Abbey Art Centre King was employed on a part-time basis by Henry Moore. King's first commission was a large stone piece that was to make the fourth component of the Time Life frieze in Bond Street. The huge block of stone was delivered to the Abbey Art Centre where King executed the piece entirely with hand tools. The success of this first commission led to regular work over the next few years and Moore is reputed to have said he only had to think of a piece and King could make it.

In July 1953 King was appointed part-time lecturer in sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art on the recommendation of Sir Anthony Caro, whom he had met whilst working for Moore. As a result King became part of a group that included Elisabeth Frink, Eduardo Paolozzi and Caro.

In December 1954 King was given his first one-man show at Victor Musgrave's Gallery One in London. Musgrave discovered and promoted many of the leading young talents of the day, including Elisabeth Frink, Bridget Riley, and F.N.Souza. In one of his bulletins he described King's work as `Action Sculpture', akin to the action-painting popularised in the USA by Pollock and others. During this period King also exhibited in both Paris and Rome, selling very well to private collectors.

He was awarded the Boyse travelling scholarship and given a grant from the British Film Institute to make an animated film. King was very much seen as a rising star and Anthony Caro remembers "Peter King was undoubtedly one of the most forward-looking and inventive artists working in England at that time".

Difficulties in his personal life and experimentation with drugs led to a failed suicide attempt and a period in hospital. Shortly after being released King had a fatal motorcycle accident, dying at the age of only 29.

Musgrave's obituary of King in The Times read "All his best work, much of which was done under unusual difficulties, reflected the warmth of his nature; it expressed the rich variety of an inquiring mind, imbued at times with great dignity, or tinged occasionally with a delightful sense of humour. He was one of those rare people of whom it can truly be said that to know him was to love him".

Examples of king's work are held in the Arts Council and the Contemporary Arts Society of Great Britain collections.