Mystery and Drama

World-renowned Philip Jackson’s awe-inspiring sculptures never fail to move viewers with their aura of mystery, their sense of drama and their emphasis on form.

This time, for a change, we are featuring a well-known sculptor, whose work can be seen in many public places throughout London, as well as other towns. However, the aesthetics of his sculptures is so mesmerising and compelling that we have not resisted including him in our body of work, most commonly dedicated to less famous artists.

Philip Jackson, born in Inverness, Scotland, living and working in West Sussex, England, is – in fact – an award-winning sculptor, acting as Royal Sculptor for Queen Elizabeth II and was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2009.

Jackson won himself an outstanding international status for the unique, dramatic, powerful beauty of his sculptures, whose body language makes them immediately recognisable worldwide. As a matter of fact, if you are in London, you can easily be surprised by one of his stylized, impressive, delicate, composed art works, which will never fail to impress viewers with their imposing operatic posture and their powerful beauty, which assign them with a magical dimension and an overwhelming sense of drama.

Among many other public sculptures, passers-by may come across the figure of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in The Mall, the Gurkha monument in Horse Guards Avenue, the Young Mozart in Orange Square, the In-Pensioner outside the Royal Hospital, Chelsea or the giant figure of Bobby Moore in front of the new Wembley Stadium. Many other of Jackson’s sculptures can be seen in several towns in England and abroad, as well as in galleries.

Philip Jackson’s celebrated and mesmerising masked and ecclesiastical figures, strongly evoking eighteenth-century Venetian masks, or his long-gowned, faceless, enigmatic renderings of anonymous people are bound to create in viewers an overwhelming sense of drama not devoid of emotion, secrecy and a feeling of mystery, conspiracy and intrigue.

Speaking about his works, Jackson states, “My sculptures are essentially an impressionistic rendering of the figure. Where you see the figure seemingly grow out of the ground, the texture resembles tree bark, rock, or lava flow. As the eye moves up the sculpture, the finish becomes gentler and more delicately worked, culminating in the hands and the mask, both of which are precisely observed and modelled”. This immediately reminds us of Rodin’s sculptures emerging from rough stone into the perfection of impressive and delicately worked figures which move viewers so much.

In fact, Philip Jackson acknowledges Epstein, Rodin, Henry Moore, Oscar Nemon and Kenneth Armitage as his sources of inspiration for the modern style and emphasis on form which have made him famous throughout the world.

In their intriguing dramatic posturing, Philip Jackson’s powerful, fascinating sculptures trigger an intense sense of drama, which is deeply awe-inspiring and which never fails to move audiences.