Klaus Meyer was born into a non-religious Jewish family in Berlin, Germany in 1918. Following Kristallnacht in 1938, he fled to London, studying at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Slade School of Fine Art. Although his art career was disrupted by wartime internment, he subsequently held many exhibitions, his critically-acclaimed printmaking inspired by the natural environment, music, literature and poetry.
Printmaker and painter Klaus Meyer was born into a non-religious Jewish family in Berlin, Germany on 16 September 1918; his father was a doctor and his mother, a gifted impressionist painter. Music formed a significant part of home life and a major source of artistic inspiration for Meyer. Chamber music was frequently played by family and friends: Klaus’s brother, Ernst Hermann Meyer, became a prolific composer in East Germany, while his sister Susan became an accomplished singer. His brother Ulrich was a talented cellist and Ulrich’s wife, Anne Marie, a pianist and piano teacher. Even though Meyer’s parents were well-integrated into German society and were non-practicing Jews, they both perished under Nazi persecution. In 1935 his father was banned, as a Jew, from practicing medicine. This had a devastating effect and precipitated his early death in 1937. His mother was deported and died in Auschwitz, along with other members of Meyer's family.
Following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, Meyer fled Berlin, almost penniless. He joined Ernst and Susan in London, studying graphics at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and attending drawing classes under Bernard Meninsky and Morris Kestelman. At the outbreak of war, Meyer attempted unsuccessfully to join the British army. In 1940, he was sent to a prison camp in Shropshire, and then interned as an enemy alien in Onchan Camp on the Isle of Man. Onchan had an active artistic community which presented several exhibitions. The internees also had their own newsletter, The Onchan Pioneer, to which Meyer contributed drawings. During internment he illustrated a socialist journal and produced art with the scant materials available, even using wallpaper as a painting surface. In 1942, following his release, he worked as a commercial artist on propaganda posters and married Polish refugee, Celia Petszaft. Early in their marriage they endured financial difficulties and lived in cramped conditions in Hampstead. Meyer exhibited with the Free German League of Culture (FGLC), of which his brother was chairman, and contributed caricatures and illustrations to Freie Deutsche Kultur, the FGLC newspaper. In his 30s he focussed on printmaking, aided by a restitution grant from the German government, studying various techniques at the Slade School of Fine Art under Anthony Gross and Ceri Richards.
Meyer contributed to Ben Uri group shows and in 1951 participated in the exhibition The Forgotten Pictorial Language of Israel, featuring his drawings commissioned to illustrate the somewhat eccentric theories of Oxford-based, German-Jewish émigré, Heinz E. Kiewe. In his research, Kiewe explored Jewish image sources for Hebrew lettering, convinced that ‘through our neglect of this pictorial heritage, its interpretation remained a secluded subjects for rabbinical servants whose interests led them to’ deny ‘the existence of true Hebrew art’ (exhibition catalogue, n.p.). During the accompanying discussion in the gallery, supported by Meyer's illustrations, the sculptor Abraham Melnikov and German refugee art historian Helen Rosenau expressed strong doubts as to whether Hebrew lettering drew on any specifically Jewish character or 'art', stating that many symbols in fact derived from pagan, Islamic, and medieval Christian sources. Further exhibitions included the Curwen Gallery (1982 and 1999) and Camden Arts Centre (group show in 1971 and solo show in 1988). Meyer also exhibited with The London Group, Royal Society of Printmakers, Society of Wood Engravers and the Printmakers’ Council, and was a founding member of the Hampstead Artists' Council. During the 1960s and 1970s he taught at Hornsey College of Art and Kilburn Polytechnic.
Meyer often found inspiration in the natural setting of the ponds at Hampstead Heath, close to his home. He was also inspired by literature and poetry, particularly by Goethe and other German writers, his most important work considered the artist's book which he editioned on his own press, Urworte Orphisch (1982), illustrating Goethe's five short poems with his prints, interleaved with original texts and specially commissioned translations by Michael Hamburger, a fellow refugee and boyhood friend. The resulting images combined 'freeflowing form, absolute precision in the printing of colour, and eloquent use of wood grain' (Guardian, 2002). Meyer's bold style and use of experimental materials continued into his later years. In his last hand-printed book, Superimpositions (1987, Tate collection), dedicated to his brother Ulrich and Ulrich’s wife, Anne Marie, who had both died along with their little boy at Auschwitz, Meyer explored the ability of a print to express the passage of time. Using overlays of semi-transparent Japanese tengujo paper or clear polyester film, successive themes were introduced and, as in music, they were recalled, elaborated and transformed into a final composition. As Ernst Gombrich noted in the book's preface, ‘Meyer has found a new way to appeal to our deep-seated desire to watch a work of art taking shape’ (Guardian obituary). Klaus Meyer died at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, England on 7 June 2002. His work is represented in many UK public collections, including the Ben Uri Collection, British Museum, National Art Library (Victoria and Albert Museum) and Tate Gallery.
Klaus Meyer in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Klaus Meyer]
Publications related to [Klaus Meyer] in the Ben Uri Library