Jack Bilbo

Jack Bilbo (né Hugo Baruch)

(b. 1907 Berlin, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1936, returned to Germany 1956 – d. 1967 Berlin, Germany)

Miriam, 1963 Gouache on paper 46.7 x 35 cm Signed (lower right) ‘J.B.’ Ben Uri Collection Presented by Merry Kerr-Woodeson (the artist’s daughter) 1987

Bilbo’s art, influenced by Surrealism, typically depicts bizarre, erotic or grotesque themes. Jack Bilbo (as he preferred to be known) was variously a sailor, tramp, stage designer, reporter, author, self-taught artist, and gallery owner. Arrested for anti-fascist activities in 1933, he escaped to France, then Spain, arriving in England in 1936. Interned in Onchan camp, Isle of Man, for six months, Bilbo organised art exhibitions visited by 1500 internees, afterwards founding the Modern Art Gallery (1941–48) in London as a platform ‘against Hitlerism’ – a vital meeting place for refugee artists including Kurt Schwitters. Postwar, he returned to Berlin, where he opened a bar.