Paul Day (sculptor)

{{Short description|British sculptor}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:St Pancras Station 06.JPG, St Pancras Station, London, 2013]]

File:Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial profile.jpg, Victoria Embankment Gardens, London, 2017]]

Paul Day (born 1967) is a British sculptor. His high-relief sculptures in terracotta, resin, and bronze have been exhibited widely in Europe and his work is known for its unusual approach to perspective.{{cite web | url = http://www.bbm.org.uk/sculptor.htm | title = Battle of Britain London Monument | publisher = Battle of Britain Archive | accessdate = 2007-01-09 | url-status=dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070109212652/http://www.bbm.org.uk/sculptor.htm | archivedate = 2007-01-09 }}

Major works include:{{cite news | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/art-that-embraces-a-new-future-for-st-pancras-436300.html| title = Art that embraces a new future for St Pancras | work = The Independent | date=February 14, 2007| accessdate =April 20, 2017| location=London | first=Cahal | last=Milmo}}

• Brussels — An Urban Comedy, a {{convert|25|m|ft|abbr=on}} long terracotta frieze in the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert in Brussels
• The Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment in London
• The Meeting Place, a {{convert|9|m|ft|abbr=on}} tall bronze sculpture inside St Pancras railway station in London, surrounded by a frieze (see below).
• Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial (2017), in Victoria Embankment Gardens{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39202897|title=Iraq and Afghanistan wars memorial unveiled|date=9 March 2017|work=BBC Online|accessdate=9 March 2017}}
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2021), at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

In 2008 a high-relief frieze was added to the base of The Meeting Place as part of refurbishments at St Pancras, featuring images from the history of the Tube and train: people queuing on platforms or travelling in carriages; soldiers departing for war and returning injured, and repair works following the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The work was the object of controversy when first erected, as one panel depicted a commuter falling into the path of a train driven by the Grim Reaper. However, following discussions with London and Continental Railways (LCR), this panel was replaced with another.{{cite news

|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/12/art-transport

|title=St Pancras Station Refuses to Display Train Death Sculpture

|author=Rachel Stevenson

|work=The Guardian

|date=12 October 2008

| location=London}}{{cite news

|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/st-pancras-frieze-toned-down-959411.html

|title=St Pancras frieze Toned Down

|author=Paula Fentiman

|work=The Guardian

|date=13 October 2008

| location=London}}{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Day studied at art schools in the UK at Colchester and Dartington, and completed his training at Cheltenham in 1991. He now lives in a village near Dijon, France, with his French wife, Catherine. Their Anglo-French relationship is an explicit and repeated theme in his works.

The Meeting Place, which is modelled on an embrace between Paul and Catherine, stands as a metaphor for St Pancras's role as the terminus of the rail link between England and France.{{cite web | url = http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=5235 | title = Sculptor Paul Day's Commission | publisher = sculpture.net | date= 2007-02-14 | accessdate = 2008-01-09}} Another contemporary sculptor and critic, Antony Gormley, singled out The Meeting Place when he condemned the current public art works across the UK, stating: "there is an awful lot of crap out there".{{cite news

|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/modern-public-artworks-are-crap-says-gormley-this-is-how-it-should-be-done-791922.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/modern-public-artworks-are-crap-says-gormley-this-is-how-it-should-be-done-791922.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live

|title=Modern Public Artworks Are "Crap", Says Gormley

|author=Arifa Akbar

|work=The Independent

|date=6 March 2008}} Day admitted that "Some will say it is a chocolate box sculpture."

In December 2017, Day received criticism for accepting a commission to create a sculpture in Moscow of the late Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, "widely regarded as one of the most ruthless dictators in recent history", and responded, "I go with the flow".{{cite news |last1=Walker |first1=Shaun |title=Briton criticised over sculpture of 'terrible' Uzbek dictator Karimov |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/20/uzbekistan-islam-karimov-to-be-memorialised-by-british-sculptor-paul-day |accessdate=19 October 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=20 December 2017}}

In 2021, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a memorial for Fred Rogers by Day was unveiled at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.Humphreys, Rob. [https://www.rollins.edu/news/crafting-an-icon/ "Crafting an Icon"]. Rollins. Published May 28, 2021. Accessed April 30, 2023. In 2023, Day was announced as the sculptor for the upcoming The Forces’ Sweetheart And Wartime Entertainers’ Memorial planned for the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.[https://dameveralynnmemorialstatue.co.uk/memorial-to-feature-at-national-memorial-arboretum "Forces’ Sweetheart And Wartime Entertainers’ Memorial To Feature At National Memorial Arboretum"]. Dame Vera Lynn Memorial Statue. Published April 26, 2023. Accessed April 30, 2023.