Beschreibung:

Garden Sculpture: Ernst Eisenmeyer Abstract figure Sheet copper Unique 1963 370cm.; 146ins high Born in 1920^ This and the preceding sculpture^ both on a monumental scale in welded sheet copper and produced within a year of each other^ form an interesting group^ illustrating two culturally and artistically diverse approaches to sculpture in the post World War II era. Eisenmayers angular approach combining post war modernity and abstraction contrasts sharply with Teshigaharas softer organic treatment^ founded in Ikebana flower arrangements^ the principals of which he applied to sculpture in different materials. Ernst Eisenmayer was the eldest son of Austro-Hungarian Jewish parents. He tried to escape Vienna after the Anschluss; the annexation of Austria by Hitler in March 1938. As Eisenmayer recounts in A Strange Haircut - an autobiographical account about leaving Austria written in 2008 - on his second attempt he was caught on the French border^ transported to Saarbrücken prison and from there to Dachau Concentration Camp. Through his younger brother Paul^ who arrived in Britain by Kindertransport in 1939^ his brothers guardian Professor J. L. Brierley acted as Eisenmayers sponsor securing him his trainee post and hence his release from Dachau. As such he was possibly one of the last prisoners to have been released from Dachau prior to the war. Following his arrival in England he was subsequently imprisoned in five different British Internment camps^ including Onchan on the Isle of Man^ where he produced sculpture for exhibitions and wrote for the camp newspaper. His drawing |Violinist at Onchan| was later published as a motif of a postage stamp of the Isle of Man. He later worked as a toolmaker and from 1944 he exhibited for the first time in an exhibition on Austrian art in exile before studying from 1946-47 at the Camberwell College of Arts. His paintings and graphic work of the 1940s and 1950s explore the cityscapes and inhabitants of war-time and post-war London; at which time he became friendly with Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) and his friendship with Victor Pasmore (1908-1998) who he first met at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. In 1962 Eisenmayer turned to sculpture with a series of carved serpentine and stone heads which were first shown at the Mercury Gallery in 1963. Developed from his earlier representations of the brutal features of a camp guard in Dachau and working in hard^ textured stone^ the heads explore themes of the conqueror and the hostage. Eisenmayers welded^ carved and cast sculptures of the 1960s and 1970s^ produced during the continuing climate of the Cold War^ investigate the potentialities for individual and group personages to withstand the pressure of external forces and to act as markers of resistance^ particularly in an uncertain age of nuclear capability. In this sense Eisenmayers works act as witness to some of the most tragic events of the twentieth-century^ alongside capturing the excitement of post-war reconstruction^ and overlooked aspects of modernity. This figure dates to this period and was constructed by Eisenmayer himself at Elizabeth Frinks studio in Chelsea in 1963^ then installed in the grounds of the house Long Wall belonging to and designed by the well-known architect Leslie Gooday^ where it has remained until the present day. In the 1970s Eisenmayer was commissioned to undertake a number of large public sculptures including The Family Group for the Nottingham Carlton Forum and the complex steel and bronze sculpture for the British Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka^ Japan. Eisenmayers work has recently undergone a revival of interest. Some of his works were exhibited in 2009 at the London Jewish Museum of Art as part of the exhibition |Forced Journeys^ Artists in Exile in Britain 1933-45|. This was followed by a major retrospective exhibition of his work |Art beyond Exile| at the Sayle Gallery^ Douglas^ Isle of Man^ followed by The Austrian Cultural Forum^ London^ both in 2012.