Ralph Koltai CBE RDI is Britain’s senior and most celebrated Theatre Designer.
Remarkably he has embarked on a new and impressive challenge, returning to
his roots as a 3-dimensional artist, creating a series of bas-relief sculpture/collages.

They are mostly made from found objects on farms near his studio in France. He selects panels or pieces, predominantly metal, and dissects them in a compositional form. He is working energetically, currently to a total of 40 works.
Although they are not in themselves narrative, many spring from his former theatre
designs that were themselves concieved in a similar manner. A sheet of rusty
metal became a wall in Simon Boccanegra, a polished dish and sphere became
the entrance to Caliban’s Cave in The Tempest, and most recently the root of a tree
became the setting for Howard Brenton’s play The Romans in Britain.

His present work has evolved from his life-time approach to his stage designs
and remarkably show how a true artist will create and re-create. Mostly they
are wall hung, some others displayed on plinths.

Ralph Koltai was invited to make a full size walkthrough sculpture to form the entrance to the British pavillion at the Prague Quadreniale in June 2007, to be
subsequently installed in the gardens/courtyard of the Victoria & Albert
Museum later in the year. It has been contructed in iron by Ralph’s long time
collaborator Stephen Pyle to a height of 5 metres.

An exhibition of his new work is planned to celebrate the extraordinary creativity of this artist, who so generously gives his time to Theatre Design students and is an inspiration to many.