Denis Mitchell (1912–1993)

Biography

Denis Mitchell was a sculptor, painter, and teacher who grew up near Swansea and moved to the St Ives area in the 1930s. He initially worked in tin mining and then started a market garden in St Ives, where he met Bernard Leach. Leach recommended Mitchell to Barbara Hepworth, and he went on to become her principal assistant for ten years. During this time, Mitchell developed his own work, transitioning from figurative paintings to abstract sculpture. As a sculptor, he primarily worked in bronze and slate, though some of his earliest abstract sculptures were carved in wood.

Mitchell was a member of the St Ives Society of Artists and a founding member of the Penwith Society, serving as its chairman from 1955 to 1957. In 1959, he created his first bronze sculpture. During the 1960s, he taught at Penzance Grammar School and Redruth School of Art. A 1966 Arts Council Award allowed him to dedicate all his time to sculpture.

In 1967, as his studio on Fore Street in St Ives became too small, Mitchell moved his studio to join John Wells at Trewarveneth Studio in Newlyn, also moving his home there in 1969. In the 1970s, he embarked on a lecture tour in Colombia and took on further roles in Cornwall, including Governor of Plymouth College of Art and Design, Council of Management at Newlyn Orion Gallery, and Governor of Falmouth School of Art. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he continued to work at Trewarveneth Studio with Tommy Rowe as his assistant.

Denis Mitchell’s work is held in many private and public collections, including the Tate, the Arts Council, the Santa Barbara Museum in California, the National Gallery of New South Wales in Australia, the Hepworth Wakefield, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Available works

Please see below the selection of available work by Denis Mitchell.