Asher Susser was born into a Jewish familly in Narol, Galicia (current day Poland) in 1899. In order to escape Nazi persecution, he immigrated to Britain in 1938. Following the outbreak of the Second World War he was interned at Huyton Camp, near Liverpool in 1940. He then settled in Wolverhampton, where he worked as a professional photographer and artist, specialising in photographic portraits of eminent civic surgeons.
Portrait artist, Asher Susser was born in Narol, Eastern Galicia, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire (now Poland) on 10 December 1899. In his early years, his family moved to Vienna, where he embarked on his artistic career. He anglicised his first name to Asher after immigrating to England in 1938, one of the so called 'Hitler émigrés', who sought refuge from racial, religious and cultural persecution in their native lands. Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he was swept up in the policy of mass internment of German-speaking 'enemy aliens' in 1940 and interned at Huyton Camp, near Liverpool. Among his fellow internees was the pioneering German-Jewish silent film producer David Oliver (originally Olivenbaum), a fellow German-Jewish émigré, whose career encompassed the Silent Era, formation of the renowned UFA studios, production of the film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, exile in Spain, collaboration with Alexander Korda, and internment in wartime Britain. During internment, when many artists produced likenesses of their compatriots, Susser drew Oliver's portrait in 1940, with the same precision and attention to detail that he brought to a portrait of his brother, probably first shown at Ben Uri in 1946 in the exhibition Subjects of Jewish Interest as Study of a Young Jew, and then subsequently under the title The Artist's Brother in the Spring Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Contemporary Jewish Artists in 1947.
By the time of his naturalisation as a British citizen in 1948, Susser was listed as a portrait artist living in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, where he worked as a professional photographer and artist, known for specialising in photographic portraits of eminent civic surgeons (displayed in the Royal Hospital), until his retirement. He became an elder statesman of the Wolverhampton Hebrew Congregation and was a founding member of the Wolverhampton B'nai B'rith Lodge charitable organisation. As a longstanding a member of the Wolverhampton Society of Artists, at the age of 90 he was appointed as an honorary life president. Asher Susser died in Wolverhampton, England on 1 January 1995, where he had lived for over 50 years, His work is currently represented in the UK public domain in the Ben Uri Collection and the National Trust Collection.
Asher Susser in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Asher Susser]
Publications related to [Asher Susser] in the Ben Uri Library