RICHARD LA TROBE-BATEMAN MDES RCA

Portfolio

Richard La Trobe-Bateman has an international reputation for designing and building structures – from chairs and tables to bridges – using home-grown timbers, steel and wire rope

‘Richard demonstrates that ‘craft’ is a fluid, technological activity that cannot be easily categorised into one set of attitudes or lifestyles. In one sense the existence of a ‘salon de refuse’ suits La Trobe-Bateman: it provides him with a home.’ Peter Dormer, The Culture of Craft

‘The main concern of the work, on all scales is to show how the object operates as a physical structure: things like tension, compression, bending, twisting, joining and so on. The geometry, materials and constructional methods are chosen to expose the physical operation of the whole, and of each part, as clearly as possible’.

Commissions of any size are welcome. You are also welcome to visit the workshop in Bath by appointment.

Education
St Martins School of Art, Sculpture, Royal College of Art, Furniture Design

Exhibitions
2012 Making Triangles, solo exhibition, Craft Study Centre,
UCA Farnham & Ruthin Craft Centre, Edinburgh
Various, in the UK, Denmark, Austria, USA and Japan


Collections include
Victoria & Albert Museum, Crafts Council, Crafts Study Centre UCA Farnham, Leeds City Art Collection, Royal Society of the Arts

Commissions include
High table and chairs for Pembroke College, Oxford
Library chairs for Keble College, Oxford
Bedgebury Bridge for the National Pinetum, Sussex
Child's high chair presented by the Crafts Council To
HRH Prince of Wales 1982


Awards
1983 Pembroke College Competition
2003 Wood Awards Innovation
2005 Wornick Distinguished Professor for Wood Arts, CCA, San Francisco

Articles About

Exercise in Self-Deception Design Magazine no 323
November 1975 pp 34-35
Pros & Cons Crafts Magazine no 20
June 1976 pp 26-27
Handmade in London Andrew Lawson
ISBN 0-304-297437
1978 pp37-38 & 119
Craft to Industry Peter Dormer Design no 436
April 1985 pp41-42
Going with the Grain Alistair Best Designers Journal no 43
January 1989 pp 68-71
A Bridge Too Far Peter Dormer Independent
23 March 1994
Furniture Today Peter Dormer
ISBN 1-8700145-39-9
Crafts Council exhibition catalogue
1995 pp 40-41 & 72-73
Artist's Stories Nicholas Wegner
ISBN 0-907730-24-8
Artists Newsletter publication
1996 pp18-21
The Culture of Craft Peter Dormer
ISBN 0-7190-4617-3
1997 pp153-154
Thinking Through Craft Glenn Adamson
ISBN 978-1-84520-647-5
2007 pp110-111

Books

A Bridge at Tassahara Donald Fortescue California College of the Arts
2008
'Making Triangles'
ISBN 978-0-9570212-0-4
Richard La Trobe-Bateman Ruthin Craft Centre
& University of the Creative Arts Farnham
2012

Articles By

Current Furniture Crafts Magazine no 41
November/December 1979
The Pursuit of Style Crafts Magazine no 66
January 1984
Five Furniture Pieces Crafts Magazine no 74
May/June 1985
Pure & Simple Shaker Design Crafts Magazine no 83
November/December 1986
Bob Stocksdale
World Class Turner
American Craft vol 47 no8 1987
Reprinted in American Woodturner
vol 7 no4 December 1992
John Leach Ceramic Review no 115
January/February 1989
'Making Chairs' David Colwell
ISBN 978-0-9554374-7-2
Ruthin Craft Centre
2010
'The Right Angle' Fred Baier
ISBN 978-0-9554374=9-6
Ruthin Craft Centre
2011
The Outsider's View The New Bookbinder vol 33
2013

Audio

British Lives Recording Interviewer
Hawksmoor Hughes
British Library
National Sound Archive
2005