Artist : Tim Shaw
Title : Man on Fire (Working Model)
Medium : bronze (edition of 9)
Dimensions : 38 x 40 x 25 cm


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The Imperial War Museums have acquired Tim Shaw’s monumental sculpture ‘Man On Fire’ to be permanently installed at the Imperial War Museum North in front of the museum’s Libeskind building. The work, cast into bronze, was unveiled in July 2023. 

‘Man On Fire’ was originally conceived in response to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Larger than life in scale at 4 x 4 x 2.5 m, it captures the horrific moments of a figure on fire, caught in conflict. The sculpture is a powerful image of contemporary conflict and compassionately relates to the human cost of war. Originally shaped by photographs of a soldier diving for his life from a burning armoured vehicle during a riot in Basra, Iraq 2005, ‘Man on Fire’ bears witness to the universal horror of war. War is time old, and conflict does not discriminate between gender, age or country. Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, testifies to the fact that we continually repeat the same tragic mistakes.

Shaw is a British artist, born in Belfast, he currently lives in Cornwall. He was elected an Academician at The Royal Academy in 2013 and made a Fellow of The Royal British Society of Sculptors and a Fellow of Falmouth University the same year. Shaw has had a number of significant public solo exhibition throughout the UK, Ireland and internationally.  He has undertaken a number of public commissions including ‘The Rites of Dionysus’ for The Eden Project, ‘The Minotaur’ for The Royal Opera House and ‘The Drummer’ for Lemon Quay, Truro. A more overtly political side to his work became evident through a number of sculptures responding to the issues of terrorism and conflict. ‘Tank on Fire’ was awarded the selectors prize at the inaugural Threadneedle Prize in 2008 and the installation ‘Casting a Dark Democracy’ was reviewed in 2008 by Jackie Wullschlager of The FT as ‘The most politically charged yet poetically resonant new work on show in London’. Shaw has been supported by the Kappatos Athens Art Residency, The Kenneth Armitage Foundation, The British School of Athens,The Delfina Studio Trust through residencies in Greece, Spain and a fellowship in London. Most recently as an Artist Fellow at the Kate Hamburger Centre for Advance Study in the Humanities of ‘Law and Culture’ In Bonn, Germany where he began work on ’The Birth of Breakdown Clown’ an existential sculptural work utilising sculpture, robotics and AI.