John Bridgeman (Arthur John Bridgeman; Felixstowe, 1916 – 2004) was an English sculptor whose public works helped shape the postwar rebuilding of Birmingham. He first loved painting, producing gouaches and pastels in a Romantic style that celebrated the English countryside, but he went on to devote most of his career to sculpture.
He trained at Colchester School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Frank Dobson. The Second World War interrupted his studies. He registered as a conscientious objector and worked on rescuing people in Fulham after the bombings of the Blitz, an experience that shaped his art for the rest of his life. After the war he taught sculpture at Carlisle School of Art and then at Birmingham School of Art, where he remained until retiring in 1981.
His commissions included public and religious works, such as the bronze group Compassion for the former Dudley Road Hospital and the Mater Dolorosa in the Lady Chapel of Coventry Cathedral. He also made play sculptures for children on the new council estates, an idea ahead of its time. Towards the end of his life he focused on smaller female figures. His statue of the Unknown Refugee, commissioned in the 1980s, was installed in Jephson Gardens, Royal Leamington Spa, in 2025.