Terence Coventry
b. 1938
d. 2017, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Terence Coventry’s talent was recognized from an early age and he gained early admittance to the Stourbridge College of Art where he studied with Keith Leonard, who had been one of Barbara Hepworth’s studio assistants. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art, but after his request to change from painting to the sculpture course was refused, Coventry left London to establish a career as a farmer on the South Cornish coast. Fifteen years into his life on the farm, Coventry began to create sculptures that were intimate and uninfluenced by contemporary art culture. At the age of 71, he had his first solo show at Pangolin London.
The power behind Coventry’s sculpture comes from the personal urgency of his practice and his strong affinity with the subjects he creates. Coventry’s work is rooted in a strong figurative tradition: his sculpture explores the animals familiar to him from his years of farming, such as birds, bulls, cows, and boars, eloquently capturing their ruggedness and gentleness, their movement and behavior.
Self-taught in the art of casting and welding, Coventry worked in a range of materials from ferrous concrete and steel to bronze and silver, whilst also being a skillful draughtsman and printmaker. Coventry's sculptures are held in many public and private collections around the world.