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 |
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| Pros & Cons | Crafts Magazine no 20 June 1976 pp 26-27 |
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| 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 |
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| The Pursuit of Style | Crafts Magazine no 66 January 1984 |
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| Five Furniture Pieces | Crafts Magazine no 74 May/June 1985 |
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| Pure & Simple Shaker Design | Crafts Magazine no 83 November/December 1986 |
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| Bob Stocksdale World Class Turner |
American Craft vol 47 no8 1987 Reprinted in American Woodturner vol 7 no4 December 1992 |
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| John Leach | Ceramic Review no 115 January/February 1989 |
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| 'Making Chairs' David Colwell ISBN 978-0-9554374-7-2 |
Ruthin Craft Centre 2010 |
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| 'The Right Angle' Fred Baier ISBN 978-0-9554374=9-6 |
Ruthin Craft Centre 2011 |
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| The Outsider's View | The New Bookbinder vol 33 2013 |
Audio
| British Lives Recording | Interviewer Hawksmoor Hughes |
British Library National Sound Archive 2005 |
