Michael Kenny (sculptor)

He continued his studies at Slade School of Fine Art (1961–64) under the supervision of sculptor Reginald Butler, who referred to young Kenny as "the Liverpool Italian" due to his fascination for the works of Giacometti and the vast plaster structures he was creating at the time.

He completed a collection of eight paintings inspired by the Ryōan-ji Zen Garden in Kyoto, illustrating Kenny's use of charcoal, right-leaning symmetry and a bleed of pink cherry blossom.

Throughout his life, Kenny's work addressed the isolation of the human condition, expressed often through the seated or reclining female figure, abstracted and depersonalised, touching landscape and geometry; often incorporating devices such as plumb-lines evoking a science and accuracy within the emotive shapes.

[5] His last great series of drawings – The Stations of The Cross – encapsulate the full range of his imagery and references and, according to Professor Brian Falconbridge[6] at a major exhibition of Kenny's work at the Quest Gallery in Bath,[7] rank as one of the finest examples of genuinely religious art within the Christian tradition made since the Reformation.

Acquired by the Royal Academy[8] in 1998, the 14 powerful mixed-media drawings represent a modern interpretation of a pilgrimage of the mind, in which the 14 moments of Christ's Passion are captured in time.