Born in Salt Lake City in 1946, sculptor Robert Alan Hyde began his creative journey at age four, shaping backyard adobe into mud figures when clay wasn’t an option. His mother recognized his raw talent and championed him early on, literally saving him from early school frustration by proving he was a “dreamer, inventor, and a growing artist.”
By his senior year of high school, Hyde’s passion paid off. He earned a national gold medal for his clay sculpture A Family Group, which graced the cover of Practical English magazine in 1964 and secured him a college art scholarship. Though early gallery ventures and celebrity sales to icons like Nina Simone and Arlo Guthrie were interrupted by a Vietnam War-era Army draft, Hyde spent half his military service painting massive murals in Germany.
At age 20, Hyde shifted his focus permanently from clay to metal, citing durability and versatility. Working today from his home studio in Washington, Massachusetts, he uses an oxy-acetylene torch to painstakingly weld and bend steel, bronze, brass, and copper rods into intricate forms. Now 80, Hyde remains untethered to a single style, finding inspiration in nature, surrealism, and abstract design: “The world is my living room and I am decorating it.”
See more of his work, and meet Robert at our Marlborough Holiday Show, November 20-22. Booth #
