Mark Wayner was born into a Jewish family in Łomża (Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire, now Poland) in 1888 and immigrated to London with his parents, who moved in hope of finding better work, in 1893. He studied at both the Craft School (affiliated with the Royal College of Art) and the Slade School of Fine Art, with the support of the charity, the Jewish Education Aid Society (JEAS), before embarking on a successful career as a caricaturist. Wayner was a member of the retrospectively named ‘Whitechapel Boys’, the group of Anglo-Jewish artists associated with London's East End, and was an early member of the Ben Uri Art Society.
Caricaturist Mark Wayner (né Weiner) was born into a Jewish family in Łomża, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1888. Wayner immigrated to London with his parents in 1893, part of a large wave of Eastern European Jews who fled the Russian Pale of Settlement at the end of the 19th century to escape poverty and rising tensions caused by pogroms; they settled in the Jewish quarter of London's East End. Wayner's early flair for drawing led to an apprenticeship, followed by formal studies at the Craft School (affiliated with the Royal College of Art) and the Slade School of Fine Art, alongside his childhood friend Mark Gertler, and other 'Whitechapel Boys' including David Bomberg and Isaac Rosenberg. Like them, he benefitted from a Jewish Education Aid Society grant supporting his Slade attendance but Wayner’s studies there were brief (1909–10) as his grant was withdrawn due to poor attendance. In May 1914 his work was included within the so-called 'Jewish Section', co-curated by Bomberg and Jacob Epstein in the groundbreaking show, Twentieth Century Art: a Review of Modern Movements, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Wayner was also an early member of the Ben Uri Art Society. In 1916 the Jewish Chronicle reported that 'The work of the well-known young Jewish artist, Mark Wayner, is attracting attention across the ocean. In its issue of the 12th of May, the Hebrew Standard, of New York, printed a long biographical sketch and photograph of Mr. Wayner. He is now producing a number of interesting and striking caricatures, among them many dealing with Jewish celebrities, under the title of 'Caricajews'. The art monthly, Colour, is printing two of these in its next issue' (Jewish Chronicle, 16 June 1916, p. 22). Wayner drew the cover image for the programme for the Strand Theatre's benefit production of The Jew by Richard Cumberland, in May 1917, supporting Jewish victims of the war in Russia.
By 1917 Wayner was regularly exhibiting his caricatures, the Jewish Chronicle observing: 'Wayner, who is a typical child of the Ghetto, has a style that reminds me of E. M. Lilien. He has an inordinate fondness for massed blacks, but knows full well how to use them effectively' (Jewish Chronicle 12 October 1917, p. 19.) Wayner's work featured in multiple exhibitions at Ben Uri. In 1931 and around 1940 he produced two volumes of lithographs entitled Celebrities in Culture in which he portrayed many notables of the day in his signature witty style, including politicians, Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Lloyd George. In 1950 the exhibition Cartoons and Caricatures at Ben Uri presented Wayner’s portraits of musician, Larry Adler (c. 1940) and conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham (1930) among others, alongside works by other contemporary Jewish caricaturists and cartoonists, including Joss, Ross, Ralph Sallon, Walter Trier, Vicky and Victoria. Wayner also designed posters and Christmas cards for the firm, Raphael Tuck, recalling 'I didn't like to do it, but I wanted to live' ('The Quiet Savage', Jewish Chronicle, 21 May 1971, p. 14.) The article continued: 'As a student he lived behind Petticoat Lane and painted the herring-sellers and other market traders. 'But I was versatile," he said. 'I did gipsies as well. I changed my style [...] I was able to paint anything — goyim. or yidden'. Wayner also exhibited with the Whitechapel's East End Academy during the 1930s. In 1936, he created miniature paintings for a series of eight day clocks presented to Selfridges department store in London (Jewish Chronicle, 20 November 1936, p. 48); in 1937 the paper recorded his opening a commercial studio in London EC4 (25 June, 1937, p. 41). In the 1950s he showed with the Sheffield Society of Artists.
Mark Wayner died in Saffron Walden, Essex, England in 1980. His works is held in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection and the National Portrait Gallery.
Mark Wayner in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Mark Wayner]
Publications related to [Mark Wayner] in the Ben Uri Library