Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack internment camp drawings and woodcut

PXA 7524

fonds

1940-1941

Graphic Materials, Drawings, Watercolours, Prints

9669574

15 drawings (on 11 sheets) - 22 x 29 cm or smaller
1 watercolour
1 print - 22 x 13 cm

Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893-1965), artist and teacher, was born at Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He attended the Stuttgart Academy, and was a founding member of the Bauhaus. With the rise of the Nazis, he was forced to leave Germany, working in England from 1936.

When war was declared in 1939, the British government interned many German, Austrian and Italian foreigners as ‘enemy aliens.’ Hirschfeld-Mack was interned and deported, along with more than 2,000 other internees, to Australia on the H.M.T. Dunera. He was interned at Hay and Orange, New South Wales, and at Tatura, Victoria.

During his time at the internment camps, Hirschfeld-Mack completed many artworks, and also taught drawing classes in the camp university.

On his release in 1942, he was appointment art master at Geelong Church of England Grammar School. He also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the London Gallery, Melbourne University, and the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard. Hirschfeld-Mack died in 1965 at Allambie Heights, New South Wales.

References:
Draffin, Nicholas. Two masters of the Weimar Bauhaus: Lyonel Feininger, Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack. Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1974.

Fisher, Tim. Hirschfeld-Mack, Ludwig (1893-1965), Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed 16 March 2023.
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hirschfeldmack-ludwig-10510

Hirschfeld-Mack, Ludwig. The Bauhaus: an introductory survey. Longmans: Australia, 1963.

Inglis, Ken and Bill Gammage, Seumas Spark, Jay Winter, Carol Bunyan. Dunera Lives. Volume 2. Profiles. Monash University Publishing: Clayton, Victoria, Australia, 2020.

Schwarzbauer, Resi and Chris Bell. Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack: more than a Bauhaus artist. HistorySmiths: Australia, 2021.

'The estate of the artist, Private collection, Italy' (information supplied by vendor)

Item 01: Nationalisme, internment camp studies, Huyton, England, 1940 ; Figure studies, 1940
Item 02: Figures outside Hut 18, Hay, 1940
Item 03: Abstract figures studies, July 1940 ; Hay internment camp studies, 1940
Item 04: Abstract drawings, Hay, 1940 ; Sketch for 'The World to Come'
Item 05: Abstract study, Hay, 1940
Item 06: Abstract study, Hay, 1940
Item 07: Study for internment camp, Tatura ; Preparatory sketch for woodcut 'Internment camp, Tatura, 1941'
Item 08: Outside Tatura internment camp with watchtower and buildings, 1941
Item 09: Standing figures, Tatura, 1941
Item 10: Figures and hut, Tatura, 1941
Item 11: Guard, Tatura, 1941
Item 12: Figures at leisure with artist and woodblock, Tatura
Item 13: Desolation, internment camp, Orange, NSW, 1941

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder