Biography
Paul de Monchaux (b. Montreal, Canada 1934) studied at the Art Students League, New York (1952-54) and Slade School of Fine Art, London (1955-58). He was a lecturer in sculpture at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria, Nigeria (1958-60); lecturer in sculpture at Goldsmiths' College, London; Chairman of the faculty of sculpture, The British School at Rome (1977-82); and head of sculpture and head of fine art at Camberwell School of Art, London (1965-96). He gained an Arts Council Major Award, 1980, and a Northern Electric Environment Award, 1990.
De Monchaux has had several public commissions: The Girton Column, Girton College, Cambridge (2012); Breath, Memorial Gardens, St Peter's Street, Norwich (2011); Silence, - tiltle taken from a description in Primo Levi's If This is a Man of slave workers during their mid-day break, when exhaustion forces them immediately to sleep - (a memorial to WW2 the men who dug the HO8 hospital and other fortifications during the German occupation of the Channel Islands), Les Charrières Malorey, Jersey (2007); Song, an abstract tower of 20 interlocking units of sawn green English heart oakwood, originally exhibited at Westminster Hall in the House of Commons, as a memorial to Sir Winston Churchill Memorial for the BBC (after he had been voted the greatest of 'Great Britons' by television viewers), now at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2003); Brunswick Square, Birmingham (2001); Enclosure, West Park, Southampton (2000); water feature in Oozells Square, Birmingham (1998), for which he won the Civic Trust Award in 2000, with Townshend Associates; Symmetry, Wilfred Owen Memorial, Shrewsbury Abbey (1993); Basilica, Coventry Crown Court, Much Park Street, Coventry (1991); Time Benches, Gateshead Garden Festival, Tyne and Wear, and Euston Station, London (1990) and Mnemonic, Colchester Hospital (1984). Recent solo exhibitions include Volutes, Megan Piper and Bowman Sculpture, London (2019); Ten Columns, Megan Piper, London (2016) and Fixing Memory, The Piper Gallery, London (2013) and he has participated in many group exhibitions from 1960 and throughout his life including, most recently Willoughby Gerrish Thirsk House Sculpture Garden (2023); Royal Academy Summer exhibition (2022); Folds, Tristan Hoare, London (2021); and Brooke Bennington Contempory Sculpture Fulmer Editions (2021 & 2022),
His wife Ruth de Monchaux was also an artist, sharing studio shows with him and he is the father of the sculptors Cathy de Monchaux and Elizabeth de Monchaux .He was a member of The London Group and mixed show appearances include John Moores Liverpool Exhibition (1961); Notices, Camden Arts Centre (1979); the Serpentine Gallery/South Bank Centre’s Sculpture Show (1983), for which he was a selector; and Whitechapel Open (1994).
