Schotz, Benno, RSA
1891 – 1984
Benno Schotz moved to Parnu in Estonia as a child and trained as an engineer in Darmstadt in Germany. In 1912 he came to Glasgow and studied modelling in the evenings at Glasgow High School whilst continuing his training as an engineer. In 1914 he took evening classes at Glasgow School of Art whilst also working in the drawing office of a Clydebank shipbuilders. He also set up a studio in Glasgow eventually working full time as a sculptor from 1925 and also assisting in the studio of Alexander Proudfoot RSA. In 1939 he was appointed Head of the School of Sculpture at Glasgow School of Art and held this post until his retirement in 1960. In 1963 he was appointed Queen's Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland. He produced many portrait busts of notable figures and figure pieces such as 'Lament' a reference to the suffering of the Jewish people during the holocaust. He exhibited at the RSA from 1918 until 1983, he became an Associate Member of the RSA in 1933 and an Academician in 1937. His autobiography, Bronze in My Blood, was published by Gordon Wright, Edinburgh, 1981. The same year, his 90th Birthday was recognised by the RSA when Schotz was their Guest of Honour at a specail Dinner. Following his death, his family gifted a collection of books from his Library to the RSA Library, and in 2015 the sculptor's son and daughter gifted to the Academy their father's bronze Associate's medal of 1933.
Works in which this creator appears
