Harry Weinberger

(1924 Berlin, Germany – 2009 Leamington Spa, England) Immigrated to England 1939

Harry Weinberger was born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany in 1924. His family were keen collectors, exposing him to art from a young age. Following the rise of Nazism, his family moved to Czechoslovakia in 1933, where they remained for six years, until the threat of German occupation, initiated by the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, caused him to flee to England with his sister, Ina, on the final Kindertransport in 1939. Initially apprenticed as a toolmaker, Weinberger joined the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in 1944, and subsequently transferred to the Jewish Brigade, serving in Italy during the Second World War.

After the war he attended a life-class run by Welsh painter Ceri Richards, and decided to focus on art. (His cousin, Heinz Koppel, with whom he was closely connected, was by then already engaged upon his own career as an artist.) At Richards’ suggestion. Weinberger enrolled at Chelsea School of Art in London, where he was criticised for his ‘crude’ colour and moved to Goldsmiths College, but his main influence was Martin Bloch, who helped him to establish and develop his signature style and robust palette, and to forge a career both as a painter and a respected art teacher. Weinberger held his first solo exhibition at London’s Leger Gallery in 1952. Two years previously, he had begun his training as a teacher in Brighton and subsequently, taught art at schools in London and Reading, eventually becoming head of painting at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University) in 1964. The department was then at the forefront of British conceptual art and often challenged the methodology of painting. However, Weinberger’s appreciation for the medium prevailed and he continued to offer courses for students who were interested in adopting traditional approaches. On retirement in 1983, Weinberger moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, where he continued to paint. His favoured subjects included interiors and still lives; however, he also painted portraits including one of his close friend, author, Iris Murdoch.

Harry Weinberger died in Leamington Spa, England in 2009. His work is in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection, the Government Art Collection, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

Welsh Village (in memory of Heinz), 1982

Oil on canvas

71 x 91 cm

Private Collection

© The Estate of Harry Weinberger

Harry Weinberger, Welsh Village (in memory of Heinz), 1982

Welsh Village recalls and pays affectionate homage to both Weinberger’s own time in Wales and to the work of his cousin Heinz Koppel, who had earlier taught in South Wales. Like Koppel’s Happy Family – painted some thirty years earlier – the cluster of houses, huddled together against the backdrop of a hill, is central to Weinberger’s composition; while Koppel’s figures are separate from the town and float above it however, Weinberger’s are so firmly embedded within their landscape that they even share the same palette. The use of vivid greens and blues throughout, with colour applied in pure, unmodulated passages of paint, has the effect of blending and uniting the seemingly disparate elements of town and countryside into a harmonious whole.

Brooklyn Heights

Acrylic on canvas

130 x 130 cm

Private Collection

© The Estate of Harry Weinberger

Harry Weinberger, Brooklyn Heights

Weinberger was a frequent traveller and made numerous drawings, which often inspired later compositions in which he employed recurring motifs such as the sea, seascapes, harbours and ships. Brooklyn Heights uses familiar elements of his style: bold, nonnaturalistic colour is applied in broad, flat strokes to create a shimmering whole, as the East River snakes through a townscape bounded by high buildings jostling against the skyline and contrasting lower dwellings, perhaps the remnants of old residential brownstones.

Harry Weinberger, Window in Tuscany

Weinberger’s love of bright colour reaches its zenith in his painting of rural Tuscany, glimpsed through a window on a summer’s day. In place of the muted tones typically used to depict the vernacular pan-tiled roof, the artist prefers a joyous clash of reds and blues, picked up in flashes of colour in the sky beyond and contrasting with the verdant green of the countryside beyond the window.

Window in Tuscany

Oil on canvas

76 x 51 cm

Private Collection

© The Estate of Harry Weinberger