Helga Michie was born to a Catholic father and Jewish mother in Vienna, Austria in 1921; her identical twin sister became renowned Austrian author Ilse Aichinger. Following the Anschluss the twins were separated and Michie fled to her aunt in London in 1939 on a final Kindertransport. Michie’s graphic work, which she came to later in life, after taking adult education classes, included etching, collography and lithography, often focussing on themes of persecution and displacement.
Helga Michie (née Aichinger) was born to a Catholic father and Jewish mother in Vienna, Austria on 1 November 1921, identical twin sister to Ilse Aichinger who became a renowned Austrian postwar author. After their parents’ divorce, the sisters remained in Vienna with their mother but following the Anschluss (annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany), Michie (as a half-Jew, according to Nazi categorisation) fled to her aunt in London in July 1939 on a final Kindertransport, initially living in a convent overlooking the Freuds' Hampstead back garden. She was not reunited with her mother and sister (who remained in hiding in Austria) until 1947.
She completed her schooling in London where she joined the Austrian Centre (AC), a cultural gathering point for Austrian refugees, where she met her husband to be, Walter Singer; the couple were married in 1941 and had a daughter, Ruth, the following year. Michie made a wide circle of émigré friends through the AC, including artists, Anna Mahler (who sculpted her) and Erich Doitch and writers. Hilde Spiel, Erich Fried and Elias Canetti. She was also a close friend of H.G. Adler, German language poet, scholar and Holocaust survivor and historian, and his artist wife, Bettina. The Adlers’ émigré circle included artists, Marie-Lousie von Motescizky and Yehuda Bacon, both known to Michie, while Bettina supported her creativity over many years. Initially, Michie worked for Bimini (renamed Orplid in 1943), the glass button and decorative glassware business founded by Austrian émigré Fritz Lampl in 1938. She also worked as a waitress and as a secretary, then, after the war, also as an actress, with a bit part in the film, The Third Man (1949). In 1958 she married former Bletchley Park code breaker, Donald Michie, but the couple separated after less than a year. Later, she worked as a German-English translator, including of texts by her twin, who encouraged Michie to become a visual artist in the mid-1960s. She also translated text for the catalogue accompanying the Royal Academy of Art's survey exhibition German Art in the 20th Century: painting and sculpture 1905-1985 (1985).
Michie took printmaking classes at Morley College and at the City Lit, where her tutor in the late 1980s was Natalie d’Arbeloff (herself of émigré heritage, born in France to Russian-Jewish parents), with whom she established a close friendship which lasted until Michie’s death. Michie’s graphic work, which included etching, collography and lithography, often focused on themes of persecution, home, and displacement. Her printmaking largely ceased after 1989. She also sculpted, made many dynamic sketches, and in the early 1960 produced paintings utilising poster paints on paper, characterised by areas of bold, flat colour, and a simplicity of composition. Her rare exhibitions included one at Leeds Playhouse in 1977 (which was reviewed in the Yorkshire Post) and at Ingrid Barron's eponymous gallery in Hampstead in 1988; another show was held at Galerie Artica, Cuxhaven, Germany in the same year. Michie published a volume of her etchings and poems in English, entitled Concord> in 2006.
Helga Michie died in London, England on 27 September 2018, the year in which a monograph exploring her graphic oeuvre was published in Vienna. The following January a memorial symposium celebrating both twins' work was held at Senate House, University of London, which resulted in a publication edited by Australian academic, Geoff Wilkes. Michie’s daughter, Ruth Rix, is also a visual artist and there has been a recent renewed interest in her art in the context of the second generation of Holocaust survivors. In early 2023 both artists' work featured in Cross-Connections: Ruth Rix and Helga Michie held at the New Library, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. Ben Uri Collection is currently the only UK public institution holding work by Michie.
Helga Michie in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Helga Michie]
Publications related to [Helga Michie] in the Ben Uri Library