Michael Sandle

Michael Sandle RA (born 18 May 1936) is a British sculptor and artist, "widely recognised as one of the finest sculptors in the world". His works include several public sculptures, many relating to themes of war, death or destruction. His work has been critical of what he describes as the "heroic decadence" of capitalism and its involvement in global conflict.

Michael Sandle was born in Weymouth, Dorset. His father was serving in the Royal Navy, and he was christened on HMS Ark Royal. His family's home in Plymouth was bombed in the Second World War, and he grew up on the Isle of Man, where his father had been stationed in 1942. From 1951 to 1954 he studied at Douglas School of Art and Technology on the Isle of Man, and was then conscripted for two years' National Service in the Royal Artillery.

After attending evening classes at Chester College of Art, he studied printmaking in London at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1956 to 1959, where he was taught etching by Anthony Gross and etching by Lynton Lamb and Ceri Richards. He was also taught by Andrew Forge, Lucian Freud and Claude Rogers.

After travelling to Italy and Paris Sandle taught at various British art schools in the 1960s. Originally a painter and draftsman, in the 1960s he gravitated towards sculpture.

From 1970 to 1973 Sandle lived in Canada, where he was a visiting associate professor at the University of Calgary until 1971 and at the University of British Columbia from 1971 to 1972.

In 1973 he moved to Germany, and taught in Pforzheim and Berlin. He became professor of sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe in 1980.

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