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“His generosity of spirit, his energy and his love of life are reflected in his work. Amid so much art that is glib, meretricious and spiritually empty, Draper is producing work that ravishes the eye and nourishes the soul.” Roger Berthoud, journalist, art historian and author of ‘The Life and Art of Kenneth Draper
"Kenneth Draper’s work hangs in some of the great art galleries of the world as well as in the best of homes.... everywhere it hangs, everywhere his art is seen, it is cherished for its humanity and its challenge, the gorgeousness of its surface and the profound depths which lurk beneath. Life is richer for its presence.” Colin Roth, writer.
Kenneth Draper RA writes about his work - February 2010: "Living and working on the Island of Menorca for the last few years has been the main inspiration for my work. Although a small Island, this prehistoric terrain is infinitely varied in geological structure and extremes of climate. The intense heat of July and August bake the earth so dry that it seems an impossibility that anything could survive. This is in stark contrast to winter where the ferocious north wind is so awesome it can bend the stoutest of trees almost double. This wind literally shapes the island's overall structure where hills and trees lean from north to south. In October the storms and rain immediately rejuvenate the earth which after the long hot summer changes the colour of the landscape from deep reds and orange to lush emerald greens which virtually appear overnight. There is also the magic of the “Lunar landscape” which seems to transport you to another world and the multitude of deep caves and labyrinths with echoing spaces and near absence of light.
This is the kind of landscape which most acutely fires my imagination in that it contains visual events or phenomena relating to its passage through time: how it is, how it was, and how in the future it might be.  'Events' which exude sensations of the history which brought them into being. A sense of time and change is paramount in all my responses to its cause and effect: the fixed and the evolving, the seen and the hidden, and my passion to express this. I am referring here to the physicality of the landscape; the very earth, wind, fire and water of which it is made. My emotive responses and feelings are also magnified by the particular time I am there. By this I mean the effusion of light, the depth of shadow, and the intensity of the way that the sun's brilliance at noon in August dematerialises objects as they melt into black shadows in the space which surrounds them. Then there is the light of night captured in the moon’s translucent beauty which belies its gravitational power to move oceans.
Apart from the conflicting forces found in nature which shape the land, I am deeply moved by the penetrating scars of mines, quarries and excavations, and the often tragic yet disturbingly beautiful aftermath of places which have bean transformed by the industrial workings of man. This has held a fascination since my childhood in Yorkshire where the huge cones of waste scattered the skyline as a reminder of the earth removed from underground. The limestone quarries in Menorca are deep limestone “cubes” hand cut and hundreds of feet deep from which entire towns have been built. Now they are abandoned chambers which have the scale of cathedrals full of reflected light containing an astounding spiritual energy.
Within this extraordinary island with its excesses of heat and ravaging storms there also exists a myriad microscopic environment of detail where plants and flowers seam to defy the extreme elements in a struggle to survive, an inner world of intimacy to which I am increasingly drawn. The way a small cavity in a stone gives shelter to an embryonic growth which takes a similar shape to the cavity which contains it.
The focus of the more recent work is to combine even closer the physicality of sculpture with illusions more generally associated with painting. The works are made in resins, steel, wood, copper, and occasional “found” object which are coloured with layers of oil and pure pigment. Although the works have the fluidity of “painting” it is the sculptural forms which slowly gain prominence floating from the surface inviting the eye into another secret place. My overall desire is to make works which pay homage to, and celebrate the power of the natural world in its transient yet piercing beauty." Ken Draper RA February 2010
Kenneth Draper RA (born 1944) was elected to be a Member of the Royal Academy in 1991. Having studied painting at Kingston School of Art, Draper went on to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art where he pursued his passion of the three dimensional form: pushing the boundaries of sculpture and exploring form and space beyond pure painting. Many of these early sculptures were made of wood, steel and resin (materials Draper still uses today) and were massive in scale – some more than 16ft high. At this time, Draper started to explore ways of incorporating paint into these structures to give them a feeling of weightlessness; this is a continuing theme that runs through his work over 40 years later - his work now evolving into smaller, yet hugely powerful and dramatic sculptural constructions on paper and board.
Draper’s talent was recognised at the age of 21 by the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street who at that time were one of the relatively few galleries in the London’s West End to promote “modern” art; Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth had made their public debuts there in a mixed show in 1924. Draper had his first group show with them in 1965, followed by a solo exhibition in 1969 and he has continued to exhibit internationally with numerous galleries including the Whitechapel Art Gallery; the Courtauld; the Fitzwilliam Museum; the Hayward Gallery; Flowers East; the Hart Gallery; Art Miami, Florida; Glenn Green Gallery, Santa Fe, the Geneva Art Fair; Adelson Galleries, New York; The Royal Academy; the list goes on…
Kenneth Draper’s work can be found major Public and Corporate Collections:
Arthur Anderson, London
Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Wales
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Cartwright Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Bradford
Contemporary Art Society, London
Courtauld Institute, London
De Beer’s Collection, London
Fitzwilliam Museum and Art Gallery, Cambridge
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London
Hammersmith Hospital, London
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancashire
ICI, London
International Bank of Japan, London
Leicestershire Education Authority
Lloyds of London
Lloyds TSB Bank, London
M.A. Braganza & Co, London
Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield,
McCrory Corporation, New York, USA
Mischon de Reya, London
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
National Westminster Bank, London
Pearl Assurance, London
Royal Life Group
Unilever PLC, London
Usher Gallery, Lincoln
Solo Exhibitions
2009 Lisa Sharpe Contemporary Art, Art London
2007 Castlegate House Gallery, Cumbria
2006 Royal Academy of Arts, London
2004 Studio 3, London
2003 Hart Gallery, London
2002 Hart Gallery, London
2000 Hart Gallery, London
1998 New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
Hart Gallery, London
1996 Hart Gallery, London
Hart Gallery, Nottingham
1995 Peter Bartlow Gallery, Chicago, USA
Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport, Dorset
Hart Gallery, London
1994 Hart Gallery, London
Studio 3, London
1993 Adelson Gallery, New York, USA
Hart Gallery, Nottingham
Royal Academy of Arts, London
1991 Glenn Green Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Austin Desmond Gallery, London
Grape Lane Gallery, York
1990 Hampstead Theatre Gallery, London
1984 Gallerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, Holland
1982 The Minories, Colchester
Chapter Art Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
1981 Alpirsbach Gallerie, Alpirsbach, Germany
EGK Galleries, Stuttgart, Germany
Warwick Arts Trust, London
1978 Redfern Gallery, London
Cartwright Hall, Museum and Art Gallery, Bradford, Yorkshire
1969 Redfern Gallery, London
Group Exhibitions
2009 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2008 “A Century of Sheffield Art” Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Derwent-Wye Fine Art, Rowsley, Derbyshire
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Invited Artist, Pastel Society, The Mall Galleries, London
2007 “Homage to Menorca”, Sa Nostra Foundation, Menorca. Two person exhibition with Jean Macalpine
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
“Circa 1976” Milton Keynes Gallery, Works from the Arts Council Collection
Castlegate House Gallery, Cumbria
2006 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2005 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Castlegate House Gallery, Summer Exhibiton, Cumbria
2004 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2003 Contemporary Sculpture, Palm Beach, Florida
EUROP’ART, Geneva
Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
‘Sterling Stuff’ Royal Academy, London
2002 Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
Gallery in Cork Street, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2001 Contemporary Art Fair, Geneva, Switzerland
International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
2000 ‘Art Miami 2000’ Florida, USA
Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
‘Fusion’ Riverhouse Gallery, Walton-on-Thames
1999 ‘Art Miami 99’ Florida, USA
‘ Art 99’ Islington, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Triennial Sculpture Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
‘Contemporary British Landscape’ Flowers East, London
1998 ‘Art Miami 98’ Florida, USA
‘Art 98’ Islington, London
‘The Poetry of Place’ Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1997 ‘Art Miami 97’ Florida, USA
‘Art 97’ Islington, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1996 ‘Art Miami 96’ Florida, USA
‘Art 96’ Islington, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Twentieth Century British Art Fair, London
1995 ‘Art 95’ Islington, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Geneva Art Fair, Geneva, Switzerland
Manchester Fine Arts Fair, Manchester
Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
Group Exhibition, Adelson Galleries, New York, USA
1994 Contemporary Art Society Market, London
Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Works on Paper, Adelson Galleries, New York, USA
Chesil Gallery, Portland, Dorset
Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
‘Space Redefined’ Shad Thames Galleries, Butlers Wharf, London
‘Small is Beautiful’ Flowers East, London
‘Landscape’ New Academy Gallery, London
1993 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
‘Art 93’ Islington, London
Chicago International Art Expostion, USA
‘Painting the Earth’ John Jones Gallery, London
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
‘Small is Beautiful’ Flowers East, London
1992 ‘Aspects of British Abstraction, The Poetic Trace’ Adelson Galleries, New York, USA
‘British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century’ Millfield, Somerset
‘Landscape’ On Line Gallery, Southampton
‘Sense of Place’ Cleveland Bridge Gallery, Bath
‘Art 92’ Islington, London
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1991 Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, USA
‘Art 91’ Islington, London
ICAF Olympia, London
‘Stonewall’ ICA Galleries, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
Wessex Artists, Parnham House, Dorset
Group Exhibition, On Line Gallery, Southampton
1990 International Gallery Invitational Art Fair, Chicago, USA
Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
‘Art 90’ Islington, London
ICAF Olympia, London
Group Exhibition, Glenn Green Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Bath Art Fair, Bath
Group Exhibition, Louise Hallett Gallery, London
Contemporary Art Fair, Sydney, Australia
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
1989 Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
Artist in Residence, Chesil Gallery, Portland, Dorset
1988 Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
Group Exhibition, Louise Hallett Gallery, London
Warwick Arts Trust Collection, Warwick Arts Trust, London
Art in the Market Place, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
‘Landscape’ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
1987 Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
‘Art for the City’ Lloyds of London
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
‘Hunter Collection of Twentieth Century Modern Masters’ Courtauld Gallery, London
1986 ‘Hidden Landscape’ Juda Rowan Gallery, London
Contemporary Art Society Market, London
1985 Contemporary Art Society Market, London
1984 ‘Questions About Sculpture’ Arts Council touring Exhibition
Group Exhibition, Friedus Ordover Gallery, New York, USA
1983 The Sculpture Show, Hayward Gallery, London
Group Exhibition, Studio Odd, Hiroshima, Japan
‘Small is Beautiful’ Angela Flowers Gallery, London
1982 ‘Coloured Constructions’ Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1981 ‘British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century’ Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1980 ‘The Human Factor’ Arts Council Touring Exhibition
‘The British Art Show’ Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield (and tour)
1979 Tolly Cobbold Eastern Arts Exhibition, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (and tour)
British Sculptor’s Drawings, The Minories, Colchester
Contemporary Works on Paper, Gainsborough House, Sudbury
1978 ‘Fragile Stones Make Art’ National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Works on Paper, Artist’s Market, London
1977 Tolly Cobbold Eastern Arts Exhibition, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (and tour)
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Contemporary British Sculpture, Battersea Park, London
‘Yorkshire Sculptors’ Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall, Yorkshire
1976 Arts Council, Recent Purchases, Hayward Gallery, London
1972 ‘British Sculptors ‘72’, Royal Academy, London
‘ British Sculptors ‘72’ Related Works, Redfern Gallery, London
1971 Seven Redfern Artists, Redfern Gallery, London
British Sculptors Drawings, Bonino Gallery, Buenos Aires (and touring South America)
Eight Individuals, Gravers Gallery, Sheffield (and Arts Council tour)
Jacobs Ladder Inc., Washington DC, USA
1968 Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
1965 Young Contemporaries
Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
1964 London Group, London
Commissions and Awards
2002 Designed commemorative Poster and Banner for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
1981 Sculpture for Bradford University, Arts Council Project
1976 Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary
1974 Outdoor Sculpture for John Dalton Building, University of Manchester
1971 Mark Rothko Memorial Award, travel bursary to USA
1965 Young Contemporaries prize for Sculpture
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