Butler, Reg

Reg Butler, byname of Reginald Cotterell Butler, (born April 28, 1913, Buntingford, Hertfordshire, Eng.—died Oct. 23, 1981, Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire), English sculptor of figurative works noted for their strenuous quality of line.

Butler studied architecture and lectured at the Architectural Association School, London (1937–39). He worked for a time as a blacksmith, and his early openwork sculptures in wrought iron reflect this training. His first one-man exhibition was held in London in 1949, and in 1952 and 1954 he exhibited at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Butler’s work in shell bronze from the mid-1950s shows an increasing concern with volume and texture; his continued preoccupation with line, however, lends the naturalistic nudes of this period a distinctive tension. After 1960, rejecting a set personal idiom, he sculpted abstract towers, nudes influenced by African primitive art, and realistically painted erotic nudes.