Anthea Alley

{{Short description|British sculptor and artist}} {{Use British English|date=March 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}} '''Anthea Priscilla Frederica Alley''' (nee '''Oswell''', 5 January 1927 – 9 October 1993) was a British sculptor, painter, and teacher.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alley, Anthea, 1927–1993 {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/alley-anthea-19271993 |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}</ref>

She was born Anthea Priscilla Frederica Oswell in Seremban, Malaya on 5 January 1927.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Blow |first=Sandra |date=8 November 1993 |title=Obituary: Anthea Alley |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-anthea-alley-1502905.html |work=The Independent}}</ref> She lived in Australia and South Africa during the Second World War.<ref name="Spalding">{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|author-link=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6}}</ref> In 1944 she moved to London with her family and studied painting at the Regent Street Polytechnic,<ref name=Foster>{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=Alicia|title=Tate women artists|date=2004|publisher=Tate|location=London|isbn=9781854373113|page=66}}</ref> Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art.<ref name=Arnolfini>arnolfini.org.uk: [http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/people/alley-anthea Anthea Alley — Arnolfini] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919211156/https://www.arnolfini.org.uk/people/alley-anthea |date=19 September 2018 }}, accessdate: 23/08/2014</ref> She taught at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham for several years.

Alley started as a painter, focusing on brutalist abstract paintings utilizing everyday materials, but she is best known for her sculptures.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title='Spatial Form', Anthea Alley, 1962–3 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alley-spatial-form-t00655 |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref> When it came to sculpture, Alley was self-taught and by the late 1950s she was recognized as an emerging British sculptor.<ref>{{Cite web |last=73adminu |date=2014-12-13 |title=Anthea Alley: Works from the 1950s & 1960s |url=https://www.englandgallery.com/anthea-alley-works-1950s-1960s/ |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=England & Co Gallery |language=en-US}}</ref> From 1957 she concentrated on sculpture art, producing welded pieces alongside assemblage paintings.<ref name="Spalding" /> In 1960, Alley held her first one-person show at the Molton Gallery and in 1961 she received a John Moores Painting Prize.<ref name="Arnolfini" /><ref name="Spalding" />

She was married to Ronald Alley, an art historian and Keeper of the Modern Collection at the Tate Gallery, London.<ref name="Arnolfini" /> They had two children, Melissa and Fiammetta Alley.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alley, Anthea, 1927–1993 {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/alley-anthea-19271993 |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}</ref>

She died in London on 9 October 1993.<ref name=":0" />

Examples of her work are in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery, the Arts Council and Birmingham Art Gallery.<ref name=Foster/><ref name="Spalding"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Art UK bio}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alley, Anthea}} Category:1927 births Category:1993 deaths Category:20th-century British sculptors Category:Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art Category:20th-century British women sculptors Category:Alumni of the Regent Street Polytechnic