Biography
Who was Arthur Dooley?
There are many stories about the colourful life of Arthur Dooley and through the course of the project we hope to discover more from the people who really knew him
What we already know, or believe to be true.
Arthur Dooley was born in Liverpool in 1929 and evacuated to Cheshire during the war. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice at Cammel Laird’s shipyard where one of his first jobs was working on the new aircraft carrier, Ark Royal. At the age of 16, after a spell as a tugboat-hand, he joined the Irish Guards. He served in Europe and Palestine and while in the Middle East was court maritialled and sentenced to three years in prison, apparently for his sympathies with the PLO. The eight years he spent in the army were crucial to his development as an artist. It was at this time that he became a devout Catholic and perhaps somewhat perversely also embraced communism. It was also while in military prison that he is said to have begun to make sculptures. When he left the army in 1953 he continued to study art, attending classes at Toynbee Hall in London. He went on to become a cleaner at St Martins College and continued his education by observing the students and making work from discarded materials and was eventually given a one-man show by St Martins in 1961.
By the early 1960s art critics were hailing him as ‘a kind of sculptural Brendan Behan’. This was a time when the working class voice was finally being heard and Dooley’s straight talking seems to strike a chord with those seeking to challenge the increasingly out-of-date establishment. He returned home to Liverpool and worked in several studios making large-scale works including 'The Stations of the Cross' for St Mary’s church in Leyland (1965) He also appeared regularly on television, not only talking about sculpture, but also defending the rights of ordinary working class people in his native city. All this helped to make him something of a celebrity and his work was collected by the rich and famous, including Cliff Mitchelmore and Danny La Rue. He was even the subject of ITV’s ‘This is Your Life’ in 1970.
During the 1970s he tried to develop a studio and art school in a converted pub in Woolton. He also continued to exhibit across Britain and carried out a number of commissions, including work on 'The Speakers Platform' at the Pier Head (1973). Politics was to remain central to his work. He campaigned for the redevelopment of the South Docks, the abolition of high-rise housing and for more help for the long-term unemployed . In 1974 he produced one of his most famous works, the Beatles memorial ‘Four Lads Who Shook the World’ on Matthew Street and in the 1980s founded a workshop for the unemployed in Kirkby.
It was during the '80s that he also helped to found the Liverpool Academy of Arts and created his final studio at 36 Steel Street. However, by this time his work was becoming less fashionable and ill-health and financial problems also played their part in his demise. He died suddenly in 1994, but left an undoubted mark on Liverpool and has never been forgotten by those who knew him.
