Ben Uri Research Unit

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


Marcel Frishman artist

Draughtsman and cartoonist, Marcel Frishman (Frischmann) was born into a Jewish family in Łódź (now Poland) in 1900. Having lived in Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Brussels and Melbourne, in 1951 Frishman and his wife Margret immigrated to England, settling in London. In 1957 facsimile reproductions of his drawings from 1950–52, including illustrations of Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky and views of London Docklands, accompanied by texts by John Berger and George Besson was published by Bruno Cassirer.

Born: 1900 Łódź, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland)

Died: 1952 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1951

Other name/s: Marcel Boleslaw Frishman, Marcel Frishmann, Marcel Fishmann, Marcel Frischmann


Biography

Draughtsman and cartoonist Marcel Frishman (Frischmann) was born into a Jewish family in Łódź in the Congress Kingdom of Poland, then part of the Russian Empire (now Poland), in 1900. In 1904 he moved with his family to Berlin, Germany, where he attended the Royal Technical Academy, graduating as an engineer, then enrolled at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied alongside Czech-born etcher and lithographer Emil Orlik under Hans Meid. There Frishman also met graphic artist and sculptor Margret (Grete) Kroch, whom he married in 1923. In the early 1920s he contributed drawings to a number of German periodicals including Die Jugend, Berliner Tageblatt, Der Querschnitt and Uhu before moving to Munich in 1926 to join the staff of the political and satirical weekly Simplicissimus as their youngest cartoonist. He produced over 500 cartoons prior to 1933 when the magazine was taken over by the Nazis and increasing anti-Semitic legislation followed. In 1933 Frishman and his wife fled Germany and after a brief stay in Copenhagen, Denmark, moved to Brussels, Belgium in 1934, staying at an arts centre for refugees at Berchem-Sainte-Agathe and helping a number of their relatives escape Nazi Germany. During this time (1933–37) Frishman also worked on an unrealised animated film in collaboration with pioneering director, Charlotte 'Lotte' Reiniger (1899–1981).


In 1939 Frishman and his wife were forced to return to Berlin to renew their visas; within 48 hours they caught one of the last boats leaving Toulon, France for Melbourne, Australia, where they joined his sister-in-law and her husband Berthold Monash, cousin of Sir John Monash, who had been commander-in-chief of the Australian army during the First World War. Despite their connections, Frishman was forced to undertake a variety of menial jobs including as a steel factory worker before enlisting in the Australian Military Air Force in 1942. After the war he exhibited his work at the Velasquez Galleries in Melbourne in 1948. During their time in Australia the couple formed a close friendship with fellow Berliner and sculptor, Erwin Fabian (1915–2020). In 1951 they returned to Europe, immigrating to England and settling in London at the Abbey Arts Centre, New Barnet. Established in 1946 by art dealer William Ohly, the Arts Centre served as a base for many Australian artists after the war. Despite deteriorating health, Frishman continued to contribute to the Swiss satirical magazine Nebelfpalter, as well as engaging in photography, which had been his lifelong hobby. Marcel Frishman died of a heart attack in London in 1952. In 1957 facsimile reproductions of his drawings from 1950–52, including illustrations of Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky and views of London Docklands, accompanied by texts by John Berger and George Besson were published by Bruno Cassirer (Oxford, England).

Related books

  • Correspondence with Federica Frishman, September-October 2020
  • Isabel Rousset, Satirical Representations of the Bauhaus Architect in Simplicissimus Magazine, in Leah Armstrong and Felice McDowell eds., Fashioning Professionals: Identity and Representation at Work in the Creative Industries (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019), pp. 103-119
  • Fritz Arnold, One Hundred Caricatures from Simplicissimus, 1918–1933 (Munich: Goethe Institut, 1986)
  • Marcel Frishman (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer and London: Faber and Faber, 1957)

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Berliner Tageblatt (contributor, 1920s–1930s)
  • Jugend (contributor, 1920s–1930s)
  • Nebelfpalter (contributor, 1951–52)
  • Der Querschnitt (contributor, 1920s–1930s)
  • Simplicissimus (contributor, 1926–33)
  • Uhu (contributor, 1920s–1930s)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • One Hundred Caricatures from Simplicissimus, 1918–1933, Goethe Institut, Munich (1986)
  • Marcel Frishman, Upper Grosvenor Galleries, London (1958)
  • Fifty Drawings by Marcel Frishman (1900–1952), Marlborough Fine Art, London (1958)
  • Margret Kroch-Frishman and Marcel Frishman, Velasquez Galleries, Melbourne (1948)
  Marcel Frishman
   
Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Marcel Frishman]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Marcel Frishman] in the Ben Uri Library