Born: 1897 Worms, Germany
Died: 1960 London, England
Year of Migration to the UK: 1934
Other name/s: Alfred Huttenbach, Alfred Heinrich Huttenbach, Alfred Heinrich Huettenbach, Alfred Henry Huttenbach, Alfred Henry Hutten
Biography
Sculptor Alfred Hüttenbach was born into a Jewish family in Worms, Germany in 1897. He moved to Munich in 1919, where he trained as a sculptor, completing his studies in Rome and Paris. In 1934, fleeing Nazi persecution, he immigrated to England, where he participated in several important pre-war exhibitions showing support for refugee artists. In June 1934 he exhibited three sculptures, Resting Woman, and two bronzes, a Bust of Spionza and a mask of Anatole France, in the group exhibition of German-Jewish artists at London's Parson's Galleries, the earliest UK showing of support for artists suffering Nazi persecution, mounted by German-Jewish émigré art dealer Carl Braunschweig. The following year, Hüttenbach particiated in the Annual Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists at Ben Uri Gallery, again exhibiting the bronze of Spinoza, loaned by British philosopher, Prof. Harold Foster Hallet (author of a seminal work on Spinoza), alongside works by fellow recent refugee sculptors Benno Elkan and Fritz (later Fred) Kormis, among others; exhibiting again in 1936 when he showed a head of Australian-born British classical scholar Gilbert Murray. In 1939 (listed as A. H. Huettenbach) he showed his portrait of Anatole France in the First Group Exhibition of German, Austrian, Czechoslovakian Painters and Sculptors at the Wertheim Gallery, London, sponsored by the Free German League of Culture (FGLC), a politically orientated organisation which provided cultural support for German-speaking refugees. Little has been traced of his wartime experience, although he is believed to have been interned in Australia. After the war Hüttenbach was naturalised British in 1947 and established a studio in Highgate, north London. In March 1951 he participated in Ben Uri's exhibition The Artist: Self-Portrait and Environment, and in the summer, the Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1851-1951, Art Section. In addition to working as a sculptor, Hüttenbach also wrote about monumental sculpture and became known as a collector, as well as a manufacturer and expert on plucked string instruments.
Alfred Hüttenbach died in London, England in 1960. In the UK, his Spinoza bust is in The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds, presented by Prof. Hallet; another cast is in the Stichting Domus Spinozana in the Hague, and the bust of Anatole France, is now in the collection of the Wallraff-Richartz Museum, Cologne. In 2007 an exhibition dedicated to the work of Hüttenbach and artist Bertha Strauss (1872–1929) was organised by the Jewish Museum in Worms in Germany, together with the Kunstverein Worms.
Related books
- Gerold Bönnen ed., Wormser jüdische Künstler, Kunstleben und Kunstförderung um 1900 bis 1933: Bertha Strauss und Alfred Hüttenbach (Worms: Worms-Verlag, 2007)
- Jutta Vinzent, 'List of Refugee Artists (Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists) From Nazi Germany in Britain (1933–1945)', in Identity and Image: Refugee Artists from Nazi Germany in Britain (1933–1945) (Kromsdorf/Weimar: VDG Verlag, 2006), pp. 249-298
- Konrad Schilling ed., Monumenta Judaica: Handbuch (Cologne: Stadt Köln, 1963)
- 'Guitar Surgeon', The Manchester Guardian, 20 February 1959, p. 7
- 'Art Exhibition. German Jewish Artists', The Times, 14 June 1934, p. 22
Public collections
Related organisations
- Free German League of Culture (member, exhibitor)
Related web links
- Alfred Heinrich Hüttenbach's Spinoza bust
- Short biography of Alfred Huttenbahch in German
- Ben Uri archives
Selected exhibitions
- Wormser Jüdische Künstler, Kunstleben und Kunstförderung um 1900 bis 1933: Bertha Strauss und Alfred Hüttenbach, Jüdischen Museum Worms and Kunstverein Worms, Worms (2007)
- The Artist: Self-Portrait and Environment, Ben Uri Art Gallery, London (1951)
- Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1851–1951, Art Section, Ben Uri Gallery, Portman Street, London (1951)
- First Group Exhibition of German, Austrian, Czechoslovakian Painters and Sculptors, Wertheim Gallery, London (1939)
- Exhibition of German-Jewish Artists, Parson's Galleries (1934)
