Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1924 Berlin, Germany

Died: 2022 Chichester, West Sussex, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1933

Other name/s: Wolfgang Cassirer, Wilfred Cass CBE

Biography

Gallerist, collector, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, Wilfred Cass was born Wolfgang Cassirer to a Jewish industrialist family in Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany, on 11 November 1924, the son of Edith (née Bieber) and Hans Cassirer. His uncles, Paul and Bruno Cassirer, were art dealers and publishers, specialising in the Berlin Secession and European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. However, as Jews, they were forced to surrender much of their collection to the Nazis. Although they honoured their heritage, the Cassirer family ‘were not very observant Jews’ (Cass, 2013, p. 4). In his autobiography, Cass referred to his immediate family celebrating Christmas; nevertheless, his father’s choice of spouse - described as ‘an orphaned girl with no connections in the Berlin Jewish intelligentsia’ - was met with familial disapproval (Cass, 2013, p. 18). Regarding the Nazis’ ascendancy, Cass noted that his ‘Jewish origins were no secret’ (Cass, 2013, p. 20). With escalating threats, the family fled Germany in 1933, first seeking refuge with Cass’s mother’s former governess in Cranbrook, Kent, England. The family, as Cass emphasised, were ‘high-profile targets of the Nazi regime’ (Cass, 2013, p. 40). Once in England, Cass attended Frensham Heights School, Surrey. During his subsequent service with the Pioneer Corps, he adopted the anglicised name, Wilfred Cass. By 1951, he had achieved a Higher National Diploma in Telecommunications. Cass married Jean Thompson-Forbes in 1957 when he was 33, and she was 19, despite his father’s disapproval, given their age difference and because Jean ‘was not Jewish’ (Cass, 2013, p. 83). The couple, who had two children, divorced in 1981.

Cass was involved in several businesses, including Cass Electronics, Hadfield Paints, and Buck & Hickman. In 1979, he and his son Mark established Image Bank UK (sold to Getty Images in 2001). Earlier, in the 1970s, while working with Reeves, a UK art supplies brand, Cass became involved with the British contemporary art scene and connected with sculptor Henry Moore, who sourced supplies from Reeves (later acquired by Reckitt & Colman Ltd). Cass purchased two Reeves shops, leased another, and turned it into the Cass Picture Gallery, which he managed for a time, alongside his wife. The inaugural exhibition was dedicated to Moore. Cass’s most significant business role was as Chairman and Chief Executive of the Moss Bros Group (1987–91). During his time in business, Cass also befriended two individuals who made a lasting impression on him: Jim Ede, a former Tate curator, collector and owner of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, and the German-born, half-Jewish art historian, Klaus Hinrichsen, a specialist in African art, European Dada art, and an authority on Isle of Man internment art during the Second World War.

Upon relocating to West Sussex after his retirement in 1992, Cass co-founded the Cass Sculpture Foundation with his second wife, Jeannette, and his son Mark soon became chairman. Located in Goodwood, near Chichester, the Foundation sprawled across 26 acres, boasting up to 80 large-scale sculptures. The Foundation (known initially as Sculpture at Goodwood) emerged from a passion for art and dissatisfaction with existing patronage models, and combined a traditional art gallery with a non-profit business model. It commissioned sculptures, covering all expenses except the artist’s fee, and when artworks were sold, the artist and the Foundation evenly split the profits. Rather than a static sculpture garden, it operated as an open-air gallery, with artworks regularly sold and replaced. The Casses, who already owned pieces by English sculptors, such as Elisabeth Frink and Moore, began commissioning works from both established and emerging artists, including Kenneth Armitage, Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, Tony Cragg, Andy Goldsworthy, Antony Gormley, Eduardo Paolozzi, Marc Quinn, Kiki Smith, Gary Webb and Rachel Whiteread, and organised exhibitions. The Foundation also forged collaborations with cultural establishments in many countries, including Russia, India, and China. They also participated at the Venice Biennale and were responsible for the first three sculptures commissioned for Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth project, inaugurated in 1998 by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA). Privately, the Casses donated over 300 artworks from their four-decade collection to the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) for distribution to UK public institutions (cassart.co.uk). In 2006, Wilfred Cass received a CBE for his contributions to the arts and his work in charitable and public services within arts and sciences. The Cass Sculpture Foundation closed in 2019. Mark Cass remains active in Cass Art (the UK’s top art materials retailer).

Wilfred Cass died in Chichester, West Sussex, England, on 18 April 2022, aged 97. The British Library holds an interview recording with Cass. In 2020, Pallant House Gallery Library and Archives in Chichester acquired about 300 documents and 45 artworks from the Cass Sculpture Foundation. In November 2022, Bellmans auction house offered works from the Estate of the late Wilfred and Jeannette Cass.

Related books

Obituary, The Times, 13 May 2022, p. 47
Wilfred Cass, The Man Behind the Sculpture: the Autobiography of Wilfred Cass (London: Unicorn Press, 2013).
Wilfred Cass, Here Comes Mr. Cass (Goodwood: Cass Foundation, 2013)
Kate Pratt and Claire Shea, eds., Cass Sculpture Foundation: the International Resource for Commissioning, Exhibiting and Selling Monumental Sculpture (Goodwood: Cass Sculpture Foundation, 2012)
Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer, eds., Landscape for Art: Contemporary Sculpture Parks (Washington: University of Washington Press, 2008)
Mark Cass, ed., Tony Cragg at Goodwood (Goodwood: Cass Sculpture Foundation, 2005)
Ann Elliott, Sculpture at Goodwood: British Contemporary Sculpture, 00/01 (Goodwood: Sculpture at Goodwood, 2000)
Ann Elliott et al, Bronze: Contemporary British Sculpture (London: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 2000)
Angela Dyer, ed., Sculpture at Goodwood: Dedicated to the Commissioning, Promotion and Sale of British Contemporary Sculpture (Goodwood: Sculpture at Goodwood, 1999)
Susan Stockwell, Susan Stockwell: a Sculpture at Goodwood Residency (Goodwood: Sculpture at Goodwood, 1996)

Public collections

Related organisations

Cass Picture Gallery (Founder)
Cass Sculpture Foundation (Co-founder)
Frensham Heights School (Student )
Image Bank UK (Co-founder )
Moss Bros Group (chairman)
Regent Street Polytechnic (student)

Selected exhibitions

New Works: Cultivating the Collection, Pallant House Gallery Library and Archives, Chichester (2022)
Think Pieces, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester (2017)
A Beautiful Disorder, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester (2016)
Gary Webb, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester (2014)
British Sculpture in the 21st Century, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester (2011)
Mobile Language - Mina Salimi, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester (2011)
21st Century British Sculpture, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chichester (2010)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Wilfred Cass]