Working from a studio in Devon, and later in Somerset, JOHN ROBINSON made a name as a sculptor of children, and sports figures. His Hammer Thrower is outside the Bowring Building, Tower Hill, London, and his 5 metre Acrobats is outside the Sports Centre in Canberra. He was Official Sculptor for the British Olympic Committee in 1988. His Gymnast is at the new Olympic Museum in Lausanne, donated by the Australian Olympic Committee.

In the early 1970s Robinson began the UNIVERSE SERIES of SYMBOLIC SCULPTURE, which now comprises over one hundred works, including sculptures in bronze, wood, stainless steel, and marble, and eleven tapestries. A selection has been exhibited at Leeds, Bangor, Liverpool, Wadham College Oxford, Churchill College Cambridge, London, Barcelona, and Zaragoza.

In creating the UNIVERSE SERIES, John Robinson traces a path from the beginning of time to the present day. The whole collection symbolically portrays the earth, animals, man and woman, birth, religion, civilisation and death. Each work is a visual interpretation of the artist's feelings; each is created in a form found in nature such as the spiral, ovoid, circle and cone. In the illustrative parts of this gallery the viewer will find a descriptive phrase accompaning each of the items, placing them in the context of a path traced through time.

The photographs of the Symbolic Sculptures in these pages were taken in either the sculpture collections of Robert A.Hefner III, Damon de Laszlo, The Philip Trust, the Universities of Wales, Cambridge, Oxford, Barcellona, Macquarie University, and Harvard, or Edition Limitee.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the owners of my work for allowing me to reproduce them, and at the same time to express my sincere thanks for their generous and unfailing support over the last 20 years. Without the support of my Patrons there would be no Symbolic Sculptures.

Sperone Speroni, a Venetian author, b 1500, wrote `the key to civilisation is the creation of wealth and the patronage of the arts'. The Patron and the Artist together create an enviroment for Gestalt, which is the essence of what I have tried to capture in my Symbolic Sculpture.

I would also like to thank Ronnie Brown for all his help and advice. Our friendship is one of the joys of my life. He opened the door into the wonderful world of the University of Wales Bangor, owners of four of my Symbolic Sculptures, and led to my being enrolled as an Honorary Fellow of the University.