Peter Midgley

(né Peter Fleischmann) 1921 Berlin, Germany – 1991 London, England Immigrated to Britain 1938

Painter, printmaker and teacher, Peter Midgley (né Fleischmann), was born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, in 1921; orphaned by the age of two, he was raised by his maternal grandfather, following whose death in 1931, he was sent to the Auerbach Orphanage for Jewish Children. He studied briefly at the Royal School of Art in Berlin before forced to flee Nazi persecution, arriving in England on a Kindertransport in 1938. He later adopted the surname of the Midgley family in Manchester, who befriended him. Following the introduction of internment, Midgley transited through Warth Mills and Prees Heath camp, north Shropshire, and was finally interned in Hutchinson camp on the Isle of Man, where he received a comprehensive arts education from fellow German-speaking internees, particularly Merz-founder Kurt Schwitters, self-taught painter Fred Uhlman, and sculptors Paul Hamann (German) and Georg Erhlich (Austrian).

Postwar, Midgley trained at Beckenham School of Art (1947–51), then the Royal College of Art, gaining the prestigious Rome scholarship (1953–4). He exhibited extensively in London, particularly with the Redfern Gallery and Royal Academy and taught at Beckenham School of Art (1955-65), and Ravensbourne College of Art and Design (1966-86). A versatile artist, his work spanned various media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking and murals for several prominent architectural projects including a floor design for Liverpool Cathedral.

Peter Midgley died in London, England in 1991. His work is in UK public collections including the Government Art Collection, the Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool, and the University of Warwick Art Collection.

Circular Diamond, c. 1969

Folded paper

76.2 x 76.2 cm

Private Collection

© The Estate of Peter Midgley

Peter Midgley, Circular Diamond, c. 1969

During the internment of so-called ‘enemy aliens’ in Britain and the Commonwealth (1940-41), the 19-year-old Peter Midgley (then using his given name of Peter Fleischmann) was interned at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man, known informally as ‘the artist’s camp’. There he received such a thorough art education from German refugee artists including the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters, painter Fred Uhlman, and sculptors Paul Hamann and the Austrian Georg Ehrlich, that he described everything he later learned at art school as ‘just a recap’. Midgley’s later practice was often experimental, and he worked in a variety of media including a series of at least three abstract reliefs in 1969. Expertly constructed from tightly folded newspapers woven into different designs, they show the legacy and influence of Schwitters, celebrated for his Merz, in which he repurposed found and discarded materials. Another version, entitled Paper Maze (1969), is in the collection of Warwick Arts Centre at the University of Warwick.

Summer Heat Sunset in Yugoslavia, 1977

Silk-screen print

87.6 x 117.4 cm

Private Collection

© The Estate of Peter Midgley

Peter Midgley, Summer Heat Sunset in Yugoslavia, 1977

A decade later, Midgley’s screen print captures the essence of a scorching summer evening at sunset in Yugoslavia through a succession of melting stripes of colour stretching in bands across the horizon. The ancient process of screen printing, which probably originated over a thousand years ago in China and was only introduced to the West in the late eighteenth century, was popularised by Andy Warhol in the mid-twentieth century, who established it as a major technique. Midgley uses this highly skilled process to experiment with line and colour.

Peter Midgley, Self-portrait, c. 1990

Midgley was a versatile painter, printmaker, sculptor and muralist, whose practice spanned many genres including portraiture. His self-portraits span his long career. This one, painted in the year before his death, is considered an excellent likeness by his family and demonstrates an undiminished passion for colour.

Self-portrait, c. 1940s

Pencil

Current whereabouts unknown

© The Estate of Susan Einzig