Gillian White

There are many different facets to the artist Gillian White, who was born in 1939. Though a well-known metal sculptor in Switzerland, she has lost none of her British spirit and the two form a perfect mix – much like her dual citizenship ! Having initially trained as a ballet dancer – a career she was forced to abandon for health reasons age 15 – she set her heart on becoming an artist instead. She pursued her chosen path with determination, combining studies (first at St Martin’s School of Art in London, then in Paris) with part-time jobs. Her single-mindedness caught the eye of Swiss artist Albert Siegenthaler, so much so in fact that the couple married, moving to Switzerland in 1966 where they built a studio with their own hands. This is where White started to create monumental works, chiefly from Corten steel. While Gillian White’s work can be described as rigorous in terms of the symmetry of its lines, its strict rhythms and its static gravity, this paradoxically results in atmospheric pieces that are instilled with harmony and poetry.