This month we take a closer look at an artwork which was commissioned to complement the landscape of the Streatham Campus.

It is an abstract sculpture designed and made by the artist Roger Leigh (1925-1997) and its title is Partition 8/6 x 3, reflects the fact that it consists of eight plates of mild steel of dimensions 6ft by 3ft. It dates to 1969.

About the artwork

The steel plates of Partition 8/6 x 3 are welded into two sections, which can be seen on either side of a well-used path from the Queen’s Building to the Forum, on the University’s Streatham Campus.

Although, due to development over the years, the landscape around the sculpture has changed, the original intention of the work was for one side to be painted yellow, to frame the view of the yellow cornfields and meadows of the Higher Hoopern Valley. When standing in front of the other side of the sculpture, painted green, it was designed to connect with the green areas of the lawn around the Queen’s Building, behind it. Although the green lawns are still in evidence, the yellow side of the sculpture now frames a view of the Forum Auditorium and further in the distance, a new block of halls of residence, which have replaced the former farmland.

About the Artist

Roger Leigh was born in Gloucestershire. During World War II he served in the RAF and from 1947 until 1952 studied architecture at Liverpool University. He worked as a studio assistant to Barbara Hepworth in St. Ives from 1953 to 1954 and then, after several years in London, returned to take up his career as a sculptor in his own right later in the 1950s. Leigh did pursue his career as an architect for the London County Council between 1954 and 1957 and then, part-time, at Truro for two years in the early 1960s.

In 1949, Barbara Hepworth had established the Penwith Society of Arts. Roger Leigh joined this Society in 1954 and by 1961 had become Chairman, at which time he presided over the negotiations for the purchase of the Society’s Penwith Gallery in a former fish cellar in St Ives. At the time he explained that if negotiations were successful the intention would be to preserve the premises as a typical St. Ives fish cellar with granite columns, capable of becoming " the finest art gallery in the west of England”. You can visit the gallery today, still in its original location, not far from Tate St Ives.

In 1966, Roger Leigh took up a position teaching art at the Exeter School of Art, which perhaps explains his connections with the University of Exeter, and the basis for this sculpture being commissioned.

Roger Leigh’s sculptures featured in many solo and group exhibitions across the UK, during the 1960s at venues such as the Arnolfini in Bristol and Portsmouth City Art Gallery.

In 1969, now living in Wiltshire, he and his wife organised a large outdoor sculpture exhibition in the grounds of their home. As well as his own work, abstract sculptures by other British artists such as Henry Moore, William Pye and Denis Mitchell were exhibited. Interestingly all the works in the exhibition were by male artists, and Barbara Hepworth is known to have written to Roger Leigh, enquiring why she had not been invited to show her work.
Roger Leigh continued to live in Wiltshire until his death in 1997. His archive and papers can be accessed at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.

Partition 8/6 x 3 is just one of the sculptures you can visit on the University’s Streatham Campus Sculpture Walk.

Acknoweledgements

Timeless Travels UK

The Times, Tuesday, Jan 24, 1961 Issue: 54987

Wikipedia