Born in 1959 in Edinburgh, attended the John Neilson School in Paisley, then entered the Glasgow School of Art in 1976. Graduated 1980 (BA Hons, 1st class).
Postgraduate studies at the University of Glasgow 1980 to 1983.
Begins work as a sculptor in Paisley in 1983, working for private clients.
First architectural sculptures from 1989, in strict neo-classical style.
First public monuments from 1992, developing a heroic-realist style for historical costume works.
Purchases by national and civic collections in Scotland in mid 1990s. Commences long-term lecturing strategy, giving public talks in Scotland, England and America on various aspects of sculpture-making, from technique to design and theory.
Late 1990s; begins looking at Irish and Scots Ossianic subjects from a neo-Grecian formal standpoint. By the middle of the following decade, Stoddart has completed essays in neo-Florentine, “New Sculpture” and even Baroque styles. Subject-matter extends into the Hindu corpus, with associated studies in philosophical Buddhism, ancient and modern forms of existentialism and Christianity.
Awarded a Doctorate of the University of Paisley in 1997
Monument to John Witherspoon unveiled by HRH The Princess Royal in Paisley. A duplicate cast erected before the University Chapel in Princeton, N.J. USA
2000: begins work on Buckingham Palace’s new Queen’s Gallery sculpture programme. (Completed 2002)
2002; begins statue of Immanuel Kant. (Completed 2003)
2002; begins monument to Robert Louis Stevenson for Edinburgh. (Completed 2003, unveiled 2004)
Awarded Classical America Award 2001 NY
Member of the Committee of Honour of INTBAU (International Network of Traditional Building Architecture And Urbanism), and is also a member of INTBAU's College for Traditional Practitioners
Made Honorary Professor in the Department of Arts and Media, University of Paisley.
Honorary Doctorate awarded by Glasgow University, 2006
Alexander Stoddart is currently engaged upon a large scheme of statuary for a civic site in Atlanta, GA, USA, and is preparing works for other American clients. An important Scottish project in hand is the Adam Smith Monument for Edinburgh’s High Street.
Further projects include a large sculpture-scheme for a new private Chapel in North Britain (Craig Hamilton, architect), a recently completed sculpture programme for Standard Life in Piccadilly, London (Robert Adam, architect), a sculptural illustration of Virgil’s Eclogue VII for Pimlico (John Simpson, architect), a decorative sculpture-scheme for a new building in New Bond Street, London (George Saumarez Smith, for Robert Adam, architects) and a frieze dedicated to the memory of Philemon and Baucis for Glasgow (Robert Potter and Partners, architects).
Stoddart has in hand a project to raise a monument to William Gallacher MP in Paisley, for which the Rt. Hon Tony Benn is Honorary Patron. Contributions to the Appeal are very welcome.
Alexander Stoddart hopes to commence full-scale work on the James Clerk Maxwell statue for Edinburgh within the first months of 2007.
Selected projects
Robert Burns/John Wilson Monument, Kilmarnock, Scotland. Unveiled 1995 by HRH The Princess Royal. Bronze.
David Hume Statue, Royal Mile, Edinburgh . Unveiled in 1995 by Sir Stewart Sutherland. Bronze.
John Witherspoon Statue, Paisley and Princeton. Paisley copy unveiled by HRH The Princess Royal 2001; Princeton copy unveiled by President Shirley Tighlman 2001. Bronze
Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial, Edinburgh. Unveiled by Sir Sean Connery, 2005. Bronze double-figure group with medallion portrait.
Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial, Edinburgh.
Adam Smith Statue, Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Project in progress, due to be unveiled summer 2007.
Prof. Roger Scruton, philosopher.
Prof. Robert Grant, philosopher and critic.
Dr. David Watkin, architectural historian.
Prof. James Stevens Curl, architectural historian.
Dr. Margaret Walker, doctor.
Mr. John Simpson, architect.
Mr. Robert Adam, architect.
Mrs. Ellen Farmer, local historian.
Mrs. Kenneth Ritchie, teacher.
Dr. David Watkin Mrs. Kenneth Ritchie
Mr. Edward Taylor, architect.
Mr. John McKie, classicist.
Dr. John Byrne, painter and playwright.
Rt. Hon. Tony Benn, politician.
Sir Robert Easton, Ship builder.
Mrs. Ellen Farmer MBE Mr. John Simpson CVO
Mr. Bert Hardy, newspaper executive.
Prof. Alex MacLennan.
Mr. H.C. Stoddart, graphic designer.
Mrs. H.C. Stoddart, teacher. (In progress.)
Lord MacFarlane of Bearsden, industrialist. (In progress.)
Vere Harmsworth, Lord Rothermere, newspaper magnate.
Sir David English, editor.
Lord Northcliffe, newspaper magnate.
Sir John Junor, editor.
Surjit Chokkhar Singh, waiter.
Thomas Muir of Huntershill, advocate and reformer.
John Gibson, sculptor.
Sir Isaac Newton, astronomer and physicist.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer.
William Sharp, author.
Alexander Thomson, architect.
Robert Louis Stevenson, writer.
Thomas Muir of Huntershill Robert Louis Stevenson
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Immanuel Kant, philosopher (over life-size statue).
James MacMillan, composer.
Henry Moore, sculptor.
Lord Provost Pat Lally.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II James MacMillan
The Daughter of Dymas – from Homer’s Iliad, Nausicaa episode. Ideal bust.
Diarmid O’Dyna – from the Irish tradition. Bronze figurine.
Ossian Nike Design for a head of Britannia
Ossian - Heroic-scale bronze bust. Collection of the artist.
“Eros of Gibson of Conway” – Terracotta study for unexecuted group. Collection of the artist.
Nike – Domestic-scale monument to the Battle of Britain. Private collection, South Carolina, USA
The Rhine – River god in terracotta, after Virgil’s “Shield of Aeneas” episode. Private collection, Charleston, SC, USA.
The Euphrates – River god in terracotta, after Virgil’s “Shield of Aeneas episode. Private collection, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
“Cuthullin sat by Tura's wall.” Terracotta for an unexecuted heroic-scale statue, from Fingal, bk. 1. Private collection, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Italian Centre, Glasgow, 1998- 1991
Four-figure scheme of mythological statuary in a multi-use city-block (Page and Park, architects, 1989-1991).
Athenaeum Building, Glasgow.
Colossal statue of Athena, with four busts (Fortuna Furiosa, Fortuna Serena, Hercules and Mercury).( Hutcheson, Locke and Monk, architects, 1992-4.) Scheme dispersed.
Ashmolean Museum /Sackler Library, Oxford.
Bronze frieze, c. 6ft by 25 feet. Allegory of modernist versus traditionalist values, from Homer to the present. (2001, Robert Adam, architect.)
Sackler Library frieze, Oxford
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
Extensive scheme of sculpture involving 70ft of bas-relief, free-standing figures and symbolic bust. (Completed 2002, John Simpson, architect.)
Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
The Millennium Gateway, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. (First phase completed November 2005. Awarded the Palladio Prize, USA, for civic urban monumentalism, January 2006.) Extensive scheme of statuary, decorating pylons and arch. (Hugh Petter, architect, with Robert Adam Architects.)
Millennium Gateway, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Eirene, for Gateway pylon.
Chapel, North Britain.
A private chapel on a country estate, dedicated to St. Rita of Cascia. Tympanum bust in bronze, two life-size statues in marble, coloured bronze altar-piece with crucifix, reredos in marble and bronze tabernacle sculpture. Work in progress (Craig Hamilton, architect.)
Saint Rita of Cascia. Plaster for bronze. Chapel doorcase.
Piccadilly, London. Massive sculpture-scheme for exterior of new city block, facing the Royal Academy. Giant order and secondary order figured bronze capitals. Sculpture completed 2005. Robert Adam Architects).
Andrea, goddess of courage. Capital for Piccadilly scheme.
Vincent Square, Pimlico, London.
Decorative sculpture-scheme from Virgil’s Eclogue VII. Important collaboration with John Simpson, architect, on a new-build city block. Due for completion 2007. Bronze and stone.
Design for a herm of Priapus, Vincent Square, London.