Reginald Cotterel- Butler

1913-1981

Reg Butler was a British sculptor born in Buntingford, Hertfordshire. Although he trained as an architect and practiced under the name Cottrell Butler from 1936 to 1950, he also attended life-classes at Chelsea School of Art and became a sculptor after working as a village blacksmith as a conscientious objector in Sussex from 1941 to 1945. In 1947, he became assistant to Henry Moore and held his first solo exhibition at the Hanover Gallery, London in 1949.

Butler's iron sculptures during the 1950s simplified the human figure to linear forms, while his later modelled sculptures dealt with the female figure, some of which were reproduced in Motif. He won a competition for a monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner in 1952 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale the same year. However, the actual monument, intended to be over 300ft high, was never executed.