Early life Schotz was the youngest of six children of
Jewish parents, Jacob Schotz, a watchmaker, and Cherna Tischa Abramovitch. He was educated at the Boys Grammar School of
Pärnu,
Estonia. Later he studied at the
Grossherzogliche Technische Hochschule in
Darmstadt, Germany. In 1912, he immigrated to Glasgow, where he gained an engineering diploma from the
Royal Technical College.
Artistic career Schotz became a full-time sculptor in 1923. An important early patron was the Dundee art collector William Boyd, thanks to whose influence both Dundee Dental School and
Dundee Art Galleries & Museums hold pieces by him. From this point onwards his reputation grew and he became a full member of the
Royal Scottish Academy in 1937, head of sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art (a post he held from 1938 until his retirement in 1961), and eventually was appointed the
Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1963. He helped refugees including
Jankel Adler and
Josef Herman and was chair of the Festival of Jewish Arts in Glasgow in 1951. He was a committed
Zionist, and also proud of his adopted
Scotland. He worked until a few weeks before his death at the age of 93. He was buried in
Jerusalem. In that year, Gordon Wright published his autobiography,
Bronze in My Blood. == Work ==