Chaim Stephenson (ne Harry Stephenson) was born into a Jewish family in Liverpool, England in 1926, the fifth child of parents who had emigrated from Russia. His father Karl, a clarinettist, had settled the family in England in the early twentieth century. A self-taught sculptor who developed his practice across two decades, he subsequently produced a substantial body of figurative sculpture addressing Jewish identity, Old Testament narrative and the plight of refugees. Chaim Stephenson died in Shepperton, England in February 2016.
Sculptor Chaim Stephenson (ne Harry Stephenson) was born in Liverpool, England in 1926, the fifth child of Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia. His father, Karl, a clarinettist, migrated under the name Stupinsky and settled the family in England in the early twentieth century. Stephenson grew up in the Toxteth district of Liverpool. During the Second World War he served as a Bevin Boy, spending a period working in the mines near Manchester as part of the wartime labour scheme. In 1946-47, he joined a group of young Jews who immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, where he subsequently fought in the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 in the Harel Brigade of the Palmach. On settling in Israel, he adopted the Hebrew name Chaim and became a founding member of the newly established Kibbutz Yas'ur in the western Galilee, where he lived for the following two decades. Working as a shepherd, gardener and teacher to sustain himself on the kibbutz, he taught himself sculpture in whatever limited spare time was available, without formal training or institutional support. In 1960, during a period of study leave in England, he met the writer Lynne Reid Banks and they married. They remained at Kibbutz Yas'ur until 1971, when they returned to England with their three sons, Adiel, Gilon and Omri, settling in Acton, west London.
Stephenson worked across a wide range of materials including clay, wood, bronze, plaster, resin, aluminium and sheet metal, and experimented with techniques such as pouring concrete over welded metal armatures. His figurative sculpture is predominantly vertical in format, and many of his human figures are characterised by a lean, sinewy, elongated quality. His practice centred on three broad areas of subject matter: the narrative and moral drama of the Old Testament; the experience of displacement, exile and the condition of refugees; and the animal world. Among his Old Testament works are treatments of Abraham and Isaac, Samson, Jacob and the Angel, Moses, Job, Ruth and Naomi, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Dove, and Hagar and Ishmael. Despite identifying as a non-believer, Stephenson returned consistently to biblical narrative as a source of fundamental moral meaning. His refugee sculptures, produced during the 1990s in response to the Balkan conflicts, depict families in flight, isolated figures of fear and sorrow, and sentinels issuing warnings of looming disaster. Works such as Fleeing Family (1995), Family in Flight (1993) and Fleeing Mother and Child (2012) address the vulnerability of ordinary people in times of conflict. His animal subjects include eagles, jackals and horses, several drawing directly on his years as a shepherd in the kibbutz.
Stephenson's first one-man exhibition in England was held at the New Grafton Gallery, London, in 1972, during his first return to England. In 1982 he showed four works in the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers exhibition at The Mall Galleries, London. In 1988 he exhibited at the Sternberg Centre of Judaism, London, showing works including Lot's Wife, Jacob's Dream, Hagar and Ishmael and animal subjects. In June 1991 he held a solo exhibition of sculptures at Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport, Dorset. His bronze Homage to Soweto (also titled Victims of Injustice and Violence, 1995), inspired by a photograph taken during the Soweto massacre of 1976, was placed on permanent public display at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London. He also exhibited in group shows at St Mary's, Sunbury-on-Thames. Following his death, the exhibition Between Myth and Reality was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, in 2017, presenting approximately 35 works, constituting the largest showing of his sculpture to date.
Chaim Stephenson died in Shepperton, England in February 2016, aged 89. In the UK public domain his sculpture Homage to Soweto is on permanent public display at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London.
The Ben Uri Research Unit welcomes contributions from researchers or family members who have further biographical information.
Michal Mel
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Chaim Stephenson]
Publications related to [Chaim Stephenson] in the Ben Uri Library