Morris Kestelman was born to Jewish immigrant parents from Russia in the East End of London in 1905. He studied in London at the Central School of Art and Design under Anglo-Jewish painter Bernard Meninsky and at the Royal College of Art, specialising in theatrical design. A versatile artist, he produced both figurative and abstract paintings, theatrical designs and murals. Head of the Painting and Sculpture School at the Central School of Art and Design for 20 years, he was elected a Royal Academician in 1996.
Painter and teacher Morris Kestelman was born in Whitechapel in London's East End on 5 October 1905 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. In 1922 he won a scholarship to the Central School of Art and Design, where his teachers included Anglo-Jewish painter Bernard Meninsky, who became a major inspiration and a lifelong friend. Meninsky introduced Kestelman to the exhibiting platform, The London Group and Kestelman helped organise the Group's 1926 exhibition in which Epstein, Bomberg, Sickert, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell all participated. Kestelman was himself elected a member in 1951. After graduating in 1925, Kestelman studied at the Royal College of Art until 1929, specialising in theatre design. He designed the décor for The Magic Flute at the Royal College of Music (1929) and subsequently worked as a stage designer for the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells. At the latter, he designed set and costumes for Tyrone Guthrie’s production of Carmen (1929).
Alongside his design work, Kestelman continued to paint. In 1931 he spent three months at Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, working in Chaim Soutine's old studio. The works he produced were included in a group exhibition at London's Cooling Galleries in 1933, The Times noting that ‘the best of the landscapes [...] is Cagnes-Sur-Mer, in which the problem of reconciling an effect of sunlight with the structural interest of a town among mountains is very well solved’ (The Times 1933, p. 8). From the 1940s to mid-1950s he produced paintings of French peasants, Spanish fishermen and circus artistes in which ‘there is a reaffirmation of humanity and life […] but they are never sentimental’ (Katz 1998, p. 6).
Kestelman shared an interest in working people with Josef Herman, the Polish-Jewish émigré artist famous for his portrayal of Welsh mining communities, emphasising, like him, the monumentality of the labourers and their close connection with the land. Kestelman also painted beautifully composed landscapes characterised by Mediterranean blues, vivid ochres and greens where light and shade alternated in subtle visual games. Kestelman’s career as a theatrical designer was halted by the outbreak of the Second World War, during which he served as an air-raid warden. In 1937 Kestelman was commissioned by Noel Carrington to make a lithographic book about Betram Mills' circus, but this was never published due to the advent of war. Late in the war he took up theatre design again, designing the set of Richard III (1944, starring Laurence Olivier, with costumes by Doris Zinkeisen). The Manchester Guardian noted that ‘Mr. Morris Kestelman’s settings and Miss Zinkeisen’s costumes are rivals in a glowing adroitness’ (L.H. 1944, p. 3). He subsequently designed productions including The Alchemist (1947) and Dr Faust (1948) for the Old Vic, as well as Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi for Sadler’s Wells (both 1944). His designs and two pastel portraits of actors (and husband and wife) Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection. He also lectured on theatre design, including for the left-wing Artists’ International Association (AIA, 1944), Morley College and Ben Uri Gallery (1947). In 1943, when reports of the Holocaust first reached Britain, Kestelman created the dramatic painting Lama Sabachthami ('Why have you forsaken me?') (1943, IWM Collection), depicting a group of Jewish men, women and children weeping and mourning over a mound of corpses. The work, exploring the ‘moral consequences of the Holocaust […] and the unspeakable consequences of organized evil (IWM entry), was first exhibited at the 1943 For Liberty exhibition organised by the AIA in the bomb shelter constructed on the bomb-damaged site of the John Lewis department store on Oxford Street in central London.
From the late 1950s to early 1960s Kestelman’s landscapes were painted ever more freely, gradually tending towards abstract shapes and patterns – some retaining reference to representational elements, others using expressive colours to create ‘organic-looking but unrecognisable shapes’ (Taylor 1998, p. 22), as exemplified by Green Forms (Ben Uri collection). He participated in many group shows, also with Ben Uri, and had solo exhibitions, including at the Morley Gallery, Cork Street Gallery and Boundary Gallery. A versatile artist, Kestelman also experimented with mural painting, exhibiting in Britain Can Make It (V&A, 1946), the Society of Mural Painter's first exhibition (1950) and executing large-scale murals for the nationwide Festival of Britain in 1951. After teaching at Wimbledon School of Art, in 1951 Kestelman became Head of the Painting and Sculpture School at the Central School of Art and Design (now Central St Martins, UAL), a post he held for 20 years. Morris Kestelman died in London, England on 15 June 1998. His work is represented in UK public collections, including the Arts Council Collection, Ben Uri Collection, British Museum, IWM, Royal Academy of Arts and V&A. His archive is held by Tate and his oral testimony by the British Library.
Morris Kestelman in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Morris Kestelman]
Publications related to [Morris Kestelman] in the Ben Uri Library