Biography

Victor Heyfron, M.A.

My philosophy of art is - in a nutshell -that the engagement in art whether as appreciator or creator ‘.. makes life worth living and prompts the desire to live on in order to experience the next moment!’ Nietzche (BT 25)!

1. Early Years:
After a period in the theatre in the late Fifties and early Sixties, Vic studied sculpture at St. Martin’s School of Art in 1961, studying under Anthony Caro, Elizabeth Frink and Phillip King. In 1963 he became a professional sculptor. He exhibited at the Society of Portrait Sculptors in the years 1963, 1964, 1966 and at the St Pancras Art Festivals in the same years.

2. Teaching:
In the late Sixties, he became Head of Art in a Secondary School in Birmingham. He was awarded an MA in Aesthetics by University of Birmingham in 1976. He lectured at the University of Worcester from 1972 to 1990, and for the Open University in Aesthetics and Art History from 1974 to 2008.
Also, he taught sculpture at:
1980 –1986 Exeter University Art Summer School, Dillington Hall, Somerst.
1991 –1994 Malvern Adult Education College, Malvern, Worcs.

3. Art Education:
As a committee member of the National Association for Education in the Arts he contributed to the influential ‘Agenda for the Arts’ project (Mary Warnock).
He is also author of a series of writings on art and aesthetic education published by the Pergamon Press (editor Malcom Ross) in the 1980s, as well as the delivery of numerous academic papers on art. He was Chief External Examiner for Post Graduate Art Course at University of Exeter from1982 to 1986.

4. Comments of his work:
Henry Moore, O.M: “Your portrait of me has caught a good likeness” (1981)

Dame Elizabeth Frink: “An extremely sensitive portraitist” (1961)

Professor Louis Arnaud Reid: (former President of the British Society of Aesthetics) “Your bust of Keats is a constant source joy to me.” (1979)

Harold Osborne, editor of ‘The Oxford Companion to Art’: “In the Keat’s portrait Victor Heyfron has achieved a masterpiece of subtle modelling which leaves little to be desired.” (1981)

A bust of Bertrand Russell is endorsed by members of The Bertrand Russell Society of the United States of America.

5. The Sculptor’s Work:
Institution Commissions:
Royal College of Music: busts of Sir Edward Elgar in 1993
Royal Borough of Kensington: busts of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana 1980
Westminster City Council: Shakespeare bust for presentation by the Mayor or Westminster to the present Governor of California: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Her majesty the Queen possesses a portrait of the Queen Mother especially sculpted for her 80th birthday.
1st Battalion Mercian Volunteers; Sculpture of a Phoenix – the emblem of the battalion..
Notables’ Birthplaces include: Sir Edward Elgar, Wm Shakespeare and John Keats
Royal Worcester Hospital (1993):bust of Edward Elgar for the ‘Elgar Wing’ which opened by Lady Barbirolli;
Secker & Warburg (publishers).(1965): sculpture for the launch of Gunter Grass’s ‘The Tin Drum’
Critical Thinking Foundation of America: bust of Bertrand Russell (2007)

6. Exhibitions:
Society of Portrait Sculptors in the years 1963, 1964, 1966 and at the Camden Art Festivals in the same years.
Three Choirs Festivals: Worcester and Malvern (1976 – to date)
The Guildhall, Worcester (2003). Permanent exhibition of his sculpture of Shakespeare’s ‘Puck’ and Euripides ‘Medea’
University of Worcester: (1981)
University of London: (1985)
Worcester Art Gallery, (2009).

7. Personal Commissions in the Sixties include: Eric Morecambe; Sir Donald Bradman; Professors Louis Arnaud Read; and Harold Checketts; Per Ung (leading Norwegian sculptor); Sir Cliff Richard; Phyllis Tate (composer); Baron Pierre Cervello; Matt Munro; Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch (The Shadows), Anthony Newlands, John Gower, Desmond Walter Ellis (Actors), David Whitfield, Yana and numerous other sitters!

8. Main Sculptural Interest  Currently, the sculptor’s portraits are inspired by the sheer fascination of a person’s physical appearance and/or their intellectual or artistic achievements. So far he has completed portraits of:
Archbishop William Temple; Sir Winston Churchill; Sir Edward Elgar; George Bernard Shaw; John Keats; William Blake; Vaughan Williams; Bertrand Russell; Beethoven; Ludwig Wittgenstein; George Orwell; William Shakespeare; D.H.Lawrence; Thomas Hardy; Henry Moore; Sir Thomas Moore; Lenin; Karl Marx; Harold McMillan, et al.) both public and private. Over the years He has made a special study of Sir Winston Churchill OM. See Churchill Busts section. As well as Eric Morecambe.

9. Current work on display   A portrait of Sir Laurence Olivier by the sculptor is currently on display at the Swan Theatre Worcester. It is the one of a number of great theatrical personnages to be exhibited at the theatre in the coming year. These include: George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Ken Dodd, et al.