Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Erich Kahn artist

Erich Kahn was born into a Jewish family in Stuttgart, Germany in 1904 and studied at the Stuttgart Art Academy and the Paris atelier of Fernand Léger. Following the rise of Nazism and the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation, he was held in Welzheim concentration camp, fleeing to England upon his release in 1939. He was subsequently interned in 1940 as an 'enemy alien' at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man, where he contributed to artistic life in camp. Largely neglected by the British art establishment after release, he continued exhibiting within a Jewish and an émigré context.

Born: 1904 Stuttgart, Germany

Died: 1979 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1939


Biography

Graphic artist and painter Erich Kahn was born into a Jewish family in Stuttgart, Germany on 25 August 1904. He studied at the Stuttgart Art Academy (1922–1925) under Professor Schneidler and was strongly influenced by the expressionist aesthetic of the local Üecht-Gruppe (founded in 1919 by German painter, Willi Baumeister). In 1926 Kahn travelled to Paris to study at the atelier of French painter, Fernand Léger, afterwards returning to Germany. Following Hitler's accession to the German Chancellorship in 1933, his work was included in the Jewish Museum Berlin's exhibition, Reichsausstellung Jüdischer Künstler (April–June 1936). After the introduction of increasing anti-Semitic legislation and the Kristallnacht pogroms in November 1938, Kahn was briefly imprisoned in Welzheim concentration camp, and upon release in 1939, fled to England.

Initially, Kahn stayed in Golders Green, north London, with British relatives, until June 1940 when he was interned as a so-called 'enemy alien' at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man - known as the 'artists' camp' because of the high concentration of artist internees, who included Kurt Schwitters, Siegfried Charoux, Georg Ehrlich, Paul Hamann, Hermann Fechenbach, and Hellmuth Weissenborn, as well as art historian, Klaus Hinrichsen. The latter recalled Kahn at their first encounter on the boat transporting internees from Liverpool to the island, as 'a shy man with a strong aversion to the 'bourgeois' values which had been his family background' (Behr and Malet 2005, p. 24). Kahn's sketches of this journey revealed dejected groups of men, huddled together like 'flotsam tossed upon the sea' (Behr et al, p. 23). Hinrichsen noted further how Kahn, '[h]unted by nightmares [...], drew and painted visions of burning cities and fugitives, running and crouching in despair, thereby lifting the specific experience of emigration and persecution into an indictment of man's inhumanity' (cited Cesarani and Kushner 1993, pp. 190-191). In camp Kahn contributed prolifically to the internees' broadsheet, The Camp, designing vignettes, lettering, and layouts, illustrating essays, and providing full-page drawings depicting camp life, reproduced using a stencilling technique he invented, using rasps and household utensils. The stencilled drawing, Lecture on the Lawn II (Imperial War Museum), represents a group of men sitting on the grass, gathered for a talk by an interned academic, as part of the camp's informal 'university'; it was dedicated to Weissenborn on his release on Boxing Day 1940, probably as a farewell present. Kahn also exhibited at the camp's Second Art Exhibition, held on 19 November 1940.

After release in spring 1941, Kahn returned to London. Although psychologically troubled, he remained active among the former internee network, regularly attending life drawing sessions at Paul Hamann’s Clifton Hill studio in St John’s Wood, where he executed numerous drawings, alongside Hugo Dachinger and Walter Nessler. Although largely neglected by the British art establishment, he was bolstered by support from eminent Czechoslovak émigré art historian, Professor J. P. Hodin, and in 1941 and 1942 exhibited at the prestigious Leger Galleries in London. Kahn was also associated with the Hampstead Artists Council, participated in Ben Uri Gallery exhibitions of works by Jewish artists from January 1944 into the 1960s, and was a member of Ben Uri's Studio Group in the early 1950s. He exhibited with Ceri Richards at the Redfern Gallery, London in 1956, but his portraits and landscapes, painted in a loose, expressionistic style, were predominantly shown within an émigré context in group shows, including at Polish émigrée, Halima Nalecz's Drian Gallery in London in 1958 and 1960, and at German émigrée, Annely Juda’s Molton Gallery in London in 1961. In January 1962 a reviewer in AJR Information observed that Kahn's 'style and working method make it difficult for the critic to pigeon-hole him, for he is neither completely abstract nor completely figurative […] his extraordinary temperament causes colouristic explosions, so that his canvases mirror in exuberant colours the overflowing passions of this artist, who seems neither willing nor capable of controlling himself. [...] Some of his works are like painted poems or musical compositions'. The oil painting, The Seven Sisters, (1954, Tate), depicting the Sussex Coast, shows a dissolution of form, almost to the point of abstraction, characteristic of his style, which can also be seen in his abstract Composition (Ben Uri Collection); he also made etchings, linocuts and wood engravings. A young Frank Auerbach was also neighbour to Kahn's studio in Camden Town, and the older painter may have been an early influence.

Eric Kahn died in London, England on 15 February 1979. A decade later, gallerist John Denham (a regular supporter of émigré artists) held a posthumous retrospective, Erich Kahn 1904 Stuttgart – 1980 London. Kahn's work has also been included in group surveys under the auspices of Ben Uri Gallery, including: Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain c. 1933–45 (Ben Uri Gallery, 2009–10) and Finchleystrasse: German Artists in Exile in Great Britain and Beyond 1933–45 (curated by Ben Uri at the Germany Embassy, London, 2018). Kahn's work is held in UK public collections, including the British Museum, Ben Uri Collection, and Tate. The largest collection of his work is at the Berardo Collection in Lisbon, Portugal, which held a major retrospective in 2005.

Related books

  • Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson, Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain, c. 1933-45 (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2009)
  • 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
  • Shulamith Behr and Marian Malet, eds., Arts in Exile in Britain 1933–1945: Politics and Cultural Identity (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2005)
  • David Cesarani and Tony Kushner eds., The Internment of Aliens in Twentieth-Century Britain (London: Frank Cass, 1993)
  • Klaus E. Hinrichsen, J. P. Hodin, Erich Kahn 1904 Stuttgart – 1980 London, exh. cat. (London: John Denham Gallery, 1989)
  • 'Erich Kahn and Margaret Bauer', AJR Information, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 1962, p. 11

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Stuttgart School of Arts and Craft (student)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Finchleystrasse: German Artists in Exile in Great Britain and Beyond 1933–45, Germany Embassy, London (2018)
  • Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain c. 1933–45, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, touring (2009–10)
  • Erich Kahn: Forgotten Generation, Jewish survivor, German Expressionist, Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna, Colecção Berardo (2005)
  • Erich Kahn, John Denham Gallery, London (1989)
  • Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1982)
  • Selected Works from Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1980)
  • Selections from the Permanent Collection - watercolours, drawings and graphics, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1977)
  • Paintings from the Ben Uri Art Gallery, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth (1970)
  • Summer Exhibition, Paintings from the Ben Uri Art Gallery, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1967)
  • Ben Uri Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1966)
  • Molton Gallery, London (1961)
  • Opening Exhibition (Berners Street), Ben Uri Gallery, London (1961)
  • Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, Germany (1960)
  • Selections from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1960)
  • Drian Gallery, London (1960 and 1958)
  • Group exhibition, Tooth Gallery, London (1957)
  • Recent Paintings by Ceri Richards, Erich Kahn and Peter Oliver, Redfern Gallery, London (1956)
  • Tercentenary Exhibition of Contemporary Anglo-Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1956)
  • Studio Group Exhibition, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1954)
  • Coronation Exhibition, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1953)
  • Studio Group Exhibition, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1952)
  • The Artist Self Portrait and Environment, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1951)
  • Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1950, 1949)
  • Group exhibition, Hampstead Artists' Council, London (1949 and 1945)
  • Exhibition of Portraits by Contemporary Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1945)
  • Autumn Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures and Drawings by Contemporary Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1945)
  • Exhibition of Portraits by Contemporary Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1945)
  • Exhibition of Paintings by A.A. Wolmark (Konstam Collection) Dobrinsky – Paris and Selected Works from the Ben Uri Art Collection, Portman Street, London (1945)
  • Summer Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures and Drawings by Contemporary Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1944)
  • Ben Uri Gallery Opening Exhibition, Portman Street, London (1944)
  • Group exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1943)
  • Group exhibition, Léger Galleries, London (1942 and 1941)
  • Second Art Exhibition, Hutchinson Camp, Isle of Man (19 November 1940)
  Erich Kahn
   
Ben Uri collection

Erich Kahn in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Erich Kahn]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Erich Kahn] in the Ben Uri Library