Wilhelm Josef Soukop [commonly known as Willi Soukop] was born in Vienna, Austria, on 5 January 1907, the son of Karl Soukop, a craftsman. After leaving school he worked in a factory during which time he attended evening classes in art at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna before gaining a place at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna where he studied from 1928 to 1934. Following the rise of the National Socialists in neighbouring Germany in 1933 Soukop was keen to leave Vienna and in 1934, at the suggestion of Kay Starr, secretary to Leonard Elmhirst, co-founder of Dartington Hall in Devon, he moved to England. By the mid 1930s Dartington Hall had become a virtual international centre for the arts and soon after his arrival in England, he set up a studio there. The following year began teaching sculpture at Dartington’s Arts Department. He continued to teach at Dartington and at Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon until 1945, apart from nine months in 1940 when, because of his Austrian citizenship, he was interned in Canada.

In 1945 Soukop relocated his studio to London and taught at Bromley College of Art in 1945-46, Guildford College of Art from 1945 to 1947, and Chelsea Art College in London from 1947 to 1972. He was a member of the Faculty of Sculpture at the British School in Rome from 1952 to 1975 and was Master of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1969 to 1982.

Soukop began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in London in 1935 and continued to do so regularly until 1970. He also exhibited at numerous other group shows in Britain and abroad, including in the Sculpture in the Open Air shows at Battersea Park in London in 1949 and 1950 and many Arts Council exhibitions. A solo exhibition of his sculptures was held at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Cobham, Surrey in 1979, and in 1991 the Belgrave Gallery in London held a major retrospective of his work.

His sculpture 'Owl' which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1963, was purchased by the Chantry Bequest for the Tate Gallery. Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst commissioned his Swan Fountain for Dartington Hall in 1950.

Soukop was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1950; a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (FRBS) in 1956; an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1963; and a Royal Academician (RA) Royal in 1969. He died in Glasgow, Scotland on 8 February 1995.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}