Indoors and Out: The Sculpture and Design of Bernard Schottlander

Developed from the holdings at both the University of Brighton Design Archives and the Henry Moore Institute, this exhibition was the first retrospective of Bernard Schottlander’s work since his death in 1999 and explored the overlaps between his sculpture and design, tracing how the elegant interior forms of his furniture and fittings were transposed into public sculpture. By taking his work outside, into the plazas created by the high-rise office blocks of the post-war years, he created a type of urban furniture which evolved from his work indoors.

Bernard Schottlander (b.1924) was known as a designer before he gained recognition as a sculptor. One of the many German Jewish immigrants to Britain, arriving at the onset of war, his early training as a welder and plater was supplemented by evening classes in sculpture at Leeds College of Art. While maintaining this interest Schottlander went on to study industrial design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London before setting up a small business manufacturing his own designs.

The simple forms and primary colours of his sophisticated designs appealed to post-war architects and in 1956 his work was included in the Council of Industrial Design’s ‘Design Review’. Schottlander produced ashtrays for the National Theatre, alongside chairs and lamps and his Evening Standard news-stands are still in use today - instant classics which soon became ubiquitous. This exhibition suggests that their sculptural qualities and their effectiveness when reproduced photographically played a large part in their appeal.

Despite this success, in 1963 Schottlander made a switch to becoming a full-time sculptor and had his first solo show at the Architectural Association, London in 1964. Numerous public commissions followed and now his work can be seen all over Britain, from the University of Warwick to London and Milton Keynes.

The display also documented Schottlander’s role in the debate which raged during the late-1960s about the appropriate form and settings for public sculptures and culminated in Peter Stuyvesant’s 1972 City Sculpture Project to which Schottlander contributed.

An essay to accompany this exhibition written by the Curator of the Design Archives, Catherine Moriarty and Victoria Worsley, the Archivist at the Institute, was published as number 56 in the Institute’s series of research papers. For further information visit: http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk