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Vicken Parsons

British artist (born 1957)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ21462501
Source-derived summary

Vicken Parsons, Lady Gormley (born 1957), is a British artist, mostly painting in oils, but also making sculptures. Her works are displayed in Tate Britain, and are in the collections of the Arts Council and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Life

She attended the Slade School of Fine Art, in London.

Exhibitions

Parsons' solo exhibitions have included Kettle's Yard, the Alan Cristea Gallery, and Tate St Ives. Her work has also been exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tate Modern, Southampton City Art Gallery and Kunsthalle Mannheim.

Personal life

Her husband is sculptor Sir Antony Gormley. Vicken met Gormley while attending the Slade, and they married in 1980. She also worked as his assistant. Gormley said of her:

For the first 15 years she was my primary assistant. She did all of the body moulding...

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Vicken Parsons” as british artist (born 1957). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Vicken, Parsons and British.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1957, 1980—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Vicken, Parsons and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Vicken Parsons”, the useful work is to connect “british artist (born 1957)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21462501. VIAF identifies the subject as 9199149198276474940000. The Library of Congress control number is no2014061045. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957 and 1980.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Vicken Parsons”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Vicken Parsons primary sources, Vicken Parsons archive and Vicken research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Vicken Parsons”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Vicken Parsons” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.