Heinz Kiewe: From Onchann to Oxford

HEINZ KIEWE – FROM ONCHAN TO OXFORD – AN ÉMIGRÉ JOURNEY RACHEL DICKSON

EXTRACT FROM Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University 1930- 1945; Editors: Sally Crawford, Katharina Ulmschneider, and Jaś Elsner; p. 284-301.

DATE 2017.

SOURCE Published by Oxford: Oxford University Press.

For further information see collection, exhibitions and research on Benuri.org.

17 From Onchan to Oxford—An Émigré Journey Heinz Edgar Kiewe Rachel Dickson Heinz Kiewe (Königsburg 1907–Oxford 1986) is a somewhat anomalous figure in this volume. Occupying a highly specialized niche within Oxford as a self-appointed expert in the field of the history of textiles, and an accomplished practical needle-worker, Kiewe primarily operated beyond the confines of academia, a position which he consolidated through his determined singularity. Well known as the proprietor of the Art Needlework Industries shop, St Michaels’s Mansions, Ship Street, he sold all materials required by the contemporary needlework enthusiast; published on the history and design of knitwear, embroidery, and tapestries; and created embroidery and tapestry charts under his imprint A. N. Industries (ANI) Limited.

This chapter will focus on the period 1933–58, in which Kiewe advanced his pedagogical concerns, initially as a newly arrived émigré who sought to facilitate educational opportunities for fellow refugees; subsequently during his internment at Onchan Camp, Isle of Man; and latterly through his commercial activities and publications, under the umbrella of ANI, following his post-internment inheritance of his family’s textile business.

Much of Kiewe’s biographical information is either self-penned or self-published, recalled long after the event and hence potentially not wholly reliable, or derives from an interview with Miriam Kochan, fellow north Oxford resident, for Britain’s Internees in the

Second World War.1 Kiewe’s most complete autobiographical account is given in ‘Confessions’, his introduction to Civilisation on Loan,2 a lavishly illustrated volume coauthored by Kiewe with journalist Michael Biddulph, which proposed that textile ‘knowledge’ passed from Eastern to Western cultures via often unidentified craftsmen rather than through known individual masters. The authors also sought to dispel a range of Westernpromulgated myths such as ‘The Myth of the English Garden’ and ‘The Myth of the Ignorant Tribesman’, and the 400-plus images presented were to function as a sourcebook to encourage the reader to make his/her own visual connections.

Kiewe was born into a prosperous Jewish family in Königsburg (now Karliningrad, Russian Republic), where his architect father Stanley owned the Kaufhaus Kiewe, a department store noted for its progressive art nouveau architecture.3 Kiewe recalled that his father was a textile connoisseur, but was unaware from where this expertise derived, and that his mother Mally was apprenticed as a young woman to the Berlin fashion house M. Gerstl

1

Transcript of an interview with H. E. Kiewe by Miriam Kochan (henceforth Kochan Interview) for Kochan (1983). Kochan could not recall for the author precisely when the interview had taken place. Interview with author, 28 November 2012.

2

Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973). Biddulph was a journalist on the Oxford Mail and Victor Woods was a local artist.

3

Kaufhaus Kiewe was illustrated as example no. 16 in a magazine feature on progressive store architecture in Der Konfektionär: Die Textilzeitschrift für Fabrikation, Groß- und Einzelhandel (Berlin: Schottlander), 6 January 1929, 19. Archives of the Sammlung Modebild–Lipperheidesche Kostümbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, reference Lipp Zb 229m mtl.

and Co.4 ‘Confessions’ opens with Kiewe’s triumphant words: ‘Design is in my blood’, 5 qualified by the remark that, as a teenager, stimulated by illustrations in art history books: ‘My life of comparative research began. I learned to spin, to weave tapestry, and the dyer’s art. Craftsmen fascinated me.’6 Kiewe received his formal art training in Berlin at the prestigious private Reimann Schule,7 located in an important Bauhaus building in the Schöneberg district, and noted for its liberal atmosphere and broad range of applied arts courses.8 When Kiewe graduated, the school was teaching fashion, textiles, costume, poster, and theatre design, had over 1,000 students a year, a flourishing student newspaper, exhibition programme, and the famous annual fancy-dress ball for which students designed lavish costumes. Towards the end of his life Kiewe fondly recalled the ‘artistic and liberating atmosphere of the Berlin twenties, the most progressive days of our lives’.9 His schooling convinced him that ‘progressive art—the Pissaros [sic] Modiglianis, Chagalls . . . had something to say’,10 and his lifelong appreciation 4

Gundlach and Richter (1993). The address of M. Gerstel is given from 1871 at Krausenstrasse 45– 55, and then from the 1920s to 1940s at Budapester Strasse. There were also branches in Breslau, Frankfurt am Main, Köln, and Baden-Baden.

5

<IBT>Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973:</IBT> xi).

6

Ibid. xii.

7

The school’s Jewish founder, Albert Reimann (1874–1976), and a number of Jewish students emigrated to the UK, including Dodo Bürgner<AQ: Pl. confirm spelling. Shd this be ‘Bürgner’?> YES (1907–1998), whose first UK retrospective was held at the Ben Uri in summer 2012; also Elisabeth Tomalin (1912–2012), noted émigré designer for Marks & Spencer and art therapist.

8

Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser (2009).

9

See Kiewe’s letter published in AJR Information 41(2), February 1986, 6.

10

Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973: xii).

of his Reimann Schule education is evidenced by his gift to the Stadtmuseum Berlin in the early 1980s of a tranche of works on paper from his student years, in response to a call for material relating to the 1920s.11 This group of watercolours and pencil sketches included lighthearted graphic designs for advertising posters,12 a thoughtful self-portrait, and richly coloured scenes depicting the Scala, Germany’s most successful vaudeville theatre.13 According to Kochan’s interview transcript, Kiewe first visited Britain in 1928. England disappointed his magpie-like researches, and in failing to produce ‘anything ethnically important, [Kiewe] went to Scotland . . . discovered the tartan, family names and family pride and . . . wrote an article that was immediately published’.14 With characteristic idiosyncrasy, Kiewe suggested these events were the reason he became a textile journalist. Furthermore, ‘Becoming so fascinated by Scottish tartan, I discovered that many names in Königsberg were Scottish—many Jews had Scottish names . . . many leading Nazis were Scottish and therefore not of pure Aryan blood. This was published in the Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung in November 1932.’15 In late March 1933, following the election of the National Socialists, Kiewe and his parents immigrated to England, settling in Ealing, west London. Kiewe recalled that, by 1939, he and his niece were volunteering at a local refugee hostel at weekends, and ‘that is 11

See Kiewe’s letter in AJR Information 41(2), February 1986, 6. Recently this uncatalogued cache of artworks has been located in the Spandau storage area of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin: Landesmuseum für Kultur und Geschichte Berlins.

12

See Krümmer (2012: 185).

13

Built in 1920 by a consortium of wealthy Jewish businessmen, the Scala was located at Lutherstraße 22–24.

14

<IBT>Kochan Interview, p. 1</IBT>.

15

Ibid.

how the first chapter of the popular university began. I invited the refugees of Ealing to give lectures in German and I was surprised how pleased they were that they were acknowledged in England.’16 Ludwig Koch, ‘the birdman’, 17 was amongst the attendees. Kiewe later made the clear distinction that he ‘was an emigrant and not a refugee and my family was declared . . . by an Ealing judge in 1940: category B. Real refugees were category C and many . . . were not interned.’18 Kiewe wrote that he became London editor of the German textile journal Der Konfectionar whilst the family re-established their textile business as Art Needlework Industries, 227 Brompton Road, London SW7, 19 to encourage the development of modern textile craft. He recalled that ‘the atmosphere in Kensington before the war was wonderful. It brought out all my interest in cosmopolitan craft.’20 Close to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, the shop functioned as a crafts workshop, supplying ‘designers, artists, embroiderers, knitters, crocheters and weavers’. 21 During this period Kiewe also developed contacts within the wider Anglo-Jewish community. In early February 1938 he spoke to the Jewish Historical Society on the 16

Ibid.

17

Émigré Ludwig Koch (1881–1974) was a noted pioneer of recording birdsong who became an eminent wildlife sound recordist and natural history presenter for the BBC.

18

Kochan Interview, p. 1.

19

Described in translation as an illustrated journal of clothing and textiles for production, wholesale, and retail trade within the ready-made garments industry, for weavers, spinners, and dyers, Der Konfectionar was published by Schottlaender in Berlin from 1886 to 1936. No byline has yet been found for Kiewe.

20

Kochan (1985).

21

Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973: xii).

‘Relationship of the Scots and Jews in Prussia and Poland’, 22 a topic typical of his rich and non-conformist approach—and one which echoed the controversial content of the earlier article which had supposedly proved so problematical in Germany. Kiewe recalled suggesting to the eminent Jewish historian, Cecil Roth, who presided at the meeting: ‘a resettlement plan for refugee artists in the manner of Worpeswede, and a college for British students on the functional lines of the Darmstadt Bauhaus’,23 which perhaps found some small fulfilment through his later role in Onchan Camp’s Popular University. Kochan’s transcript also refers to a lecture Kiewe gave at Kitchener Camp in Sandwich the following year, on ‘Britain and its Bloody Foreigners’.24 With the onset of war and Churchill’s directive in spring 1940 to ‘collar the lot’, the Kiewes, designated category B aliens, were interned. On his arrest on an early May morning (with his trunk already packed), Kiewe was taken to Knightsbridge barracks: ‘thirty people in one room . . . the majority were completely distressed; they considered that their lives were ruined’.25 Here he first encountered Jack Bilbo (Hugo Baruch, 1907–1967), self-styled ‘Artist, Author, Sculptor, Art Dealer, Philosopher, Psychologist, Traveller and a Modernist Fighter for Humanity’,26 Berlin-born from a family of theatrical stage and set suppliers. 27

22

Jewish Chronicle, 18 February 1938, 19.

23

Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973: xii).

24

<IBT>Kochan Interview, p. 2</IBT>. This lecture has not been confirmed.

25

Ibid.

26

Title page, autobiography.

27

Baruch & Cie, founded in 1910, Berlin, London, New York, by Special Appointment to the Grandducal Court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin: Theatrical Costumiers and Stage-outfitters

Kiewe’s recollections of this first dramatic meeting with Bilbo and of the subsequent stages of the internment process are clearly recorded by Kochan.28 Bilbo’s are likewise, if not always wholly reliable, given in his extraordinary outsize memoir. 29 Either way, this was to prove a significant encounter, as Kiewe suggests that it was at the first transit camp at Kempton racecourse where he discussed the concept of a popular university for internees with Bilbo,30 although Bilbo’s autobiography notes conversely that it was he, Bilbo, who took the initiative.31 On the third day at Kempton, Kiewe delivered his lecture ‘Bloody Foreigners’ and, given his status as a British resident of many years, was asked by his fellow internees to advise on lectures to teach English. 32 For Kiewe: ‘This was the first sign to me of the joy of being interned: to come into an adventurous and spiritually new sphere.’33 Kiewe and Bilbo shared the same route to Manx internment: from Kempton via the squalor of Warth Mill, a former jute mill near Manchester, finally arriving in early summer at Onchan Camp, located in residential streets on the hillside beyond Douglas, overlooking the sea. Although father and son transited at different times, they were finally interned together in Onchan, sharing a room in a requisitioned house. Mally was sent to Rushen Women’s Camp in the south-west of the island.

28

Kochan Interview, pp. 2–5.

29

Bilbo (1948).

30

Kochan Interview, p. 3.

31

Bilbo (1948: 218).

32

Kochan Interview, p. 3. Kiewe recommended Theo Marx (1920–2010), ‘the best English-speaking refugee in the camp’, who had been sent as a boarder to Mill Hill School in 1934 and who had been unable to sit his City and Guilds engineering finals due to anti-German hysteria, as a teacher. Marx eventually became President of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR).

33

Kochan Interview, p. 2.

In an interview over forty years later, Kiewe described his internment as ‘the best time of my life’,34 as he became thoroughly immersed in the rich cultural life of the camp, surrounded by numerous educated, native German speakers. He latterly compared the calibre of the Onchan internees with the ‘inhabitants of North Oxford, Boar’s Hill and Walton Street’.35 Both Kiewe and Bilbo swiftly established themselves as pivotal figures in the cultural life of the camp—Bilbo through the two exhibitions displayed in his so-called ‘cabin’ during the latter half of 1940 under the auspices of the newly founded camp ‘school of art’,36 and Kiewe as ‘secretary’ of the ‘Popular University’. Kiewe also worked with fellow internees Kurt Algore and Dr Hertz to set up the camp library, which eventually contained nearly two thousand volumes.37 He also exhibited at Bilbo’s two interned artists exhibitions; in the first more general show, he presented a work executed on toilet paper,38 which caught the eye of the reviewer for the camp magazine, the Onchan Pioneer: ‘Kiewe deliberately avoids showcasing pieces of art as documents—the developing approach of the Popular University . . . We see the first announcements on a few pieces of toilet paper, then, as his internment continues, the continuously evolving activities of the P. U. and the increasingly perfected

34

Kochan (1985).

35

Kochan Interview, p. 4.

36

See ‘Arts and Crafts in the Camp’, Onchan Pioneer 31, 30 March 1941, 4.<AQ: Pl. add author and move to Biblio.; replace here with Harvard citation. See Ch. 2 for examples. This also applies to note 37> Onchan Pioneer, 31, 30 March 1941, 4.

37

‘Food for Thoughts: The Birth of Our Library’, Onchan Pioneer 11, 29 October 1940, 4.

38

According to the typescript catalogue, the exhibition ran from 26–30 August 1940. Kiewe is listed as lending four exhibits #65–68.

announcements; we refer especially to the superb announcements of Zionist themes.’39 As a designer of gently humorous cards in camp (including one congratulating a mother and newborn),40 Kiewe also exhibited in Bilbo’s second, unseasonably early exhibition, which focused on Christmas and other greetings cards. 41 Kiewe was also active on the staff of the Onchan Pioneer, providing both text and artworks for the camp magazine to which many of the interned artists contributed, or in which their work was reviewed. 42 The first issue was published on 27 July 1940, without illustration, and subtitled Unsere Lagerzeitung. Initially German was the lingua franca, but the balance shifted increasingly towards English, and the German subtitle was soon dropped.

Perhaps the image which best sums up the breadth of artistic contribution to the Pioneer is a

39

Translated from German, Onchan Pioneer 5, 31 August 1940, 7.

41

‘Christmas Cards and Arts Exhibition’, The Onchan Pioneer, no. 10, 20 October 1940, p. 5. <AQ: Pl. add author and move to Biblio.; replace here with Harvard citation> The exhibition ran from 26 October to 6 November 1940.

42

Onchan contained 1,500 men, almost 45 per cent more than Hutchinson Camp, which was located in Douglas itself, and was known as the ‘artists’ camp, as its internees included the noted painters Ludwig Meidner, Erich Kahn, and Martin Bloch, and the sculptors Georg Ehrlich and Siegfried Charoux. Klaus Hinrichsen, the German art historian and chronicler of internment art commented in his important essay ‘Visual Art behind the Wire’ (Hinrichsen 1993<AQ: Pl. provide page no. of quote> 188-209): ‘People were more politically aware and the “Onchan Pioneer”, though less well produced than Hutchinson’s “The Camp” was far more polemical with hard-hitting editorials, a large Youth Section and full reports on many activities. Quite a few articles were written in German and there was no room for short-stories. Except for the sculptor Hermann Nonnenmacher and the designer Henrion the graphic work was unimpressive.’

full-page montage announcing New Year 1941, which appeared at the end of 1940.43 ‘Our greeting cards of the season’ featured a page of intertwined images by the most prominent camp artists, Jewish and non-Jewish, including Kiewe, F. H. K. Henrion, 44 and Klaus Meyer.45 Kiewe drew an outsize Hanukah candle sprouting from the roofs of the camp houses, reprising an earlier design for a Hanukah card, which may have been shown at Bilbo’s second exhibition.

Kiewe also wrote several articles for the Onchan Pioneer. ‘Intellectual Life in Camp’ noted that: ‘The Popular University was the outcome of the third day of the internment of 1500 civilised Europeans.’46 ‘Some Contributions by Refugees to British Life and Trade’ continued the theme,47 with Kiewe wryly and presciently noting in his opening sentence: ‘The whole story of the valuable work done by refugees in this country will perhaps never be

43

Onchan Pioneer 17, 22 December 1940, 5.

44

F. H. K. Henrion (1914–1990) emigrated from Germany to Britain in 1939. Following his release from internment he became a renowned graphic designer, working for the Ministry of Information, and an early promoter of corporate identity. He became a British citizen in 1946. Henrion contributed a distinctive single graphic hand clasping a dove to ‘Our greetings cards of the season’, which was subsequently reinterpreted as the motif for the Artists’ International Association’s (AIA) ‘For Liberty’ Exhibition in London in 1943.

45

German émigré Klaus Meyer (1918–2002) was studying graphics at the Central School of Art, London, when he was interned. He became one of the youngest tutors in the Onchan Camp ‘school of art’, teaching ‘advertising’ alongside Henrion. See, ‘Arts and Crafts in the Camp’, Onchan Pioneer 31, 30 March 1941, 4. <AQ: Pl. add author and move to Biblio.; replace here with Harvard citation>

46

Kiewe (1940a: 3).

47

Kiewe (1940b: 3).

told.’ The text highlighted a number of prominent émigrés who had already contributed significantly to British cultural life, including magazine publisher Stefan Lorant,48 the modernist architect Eric Mendelsohn;49 the Reimann Schule, which had been re-established in London, was also singled out as a notable institution. Kiewe also praised émigré participation within the materials industry and the practice of various specialized skills: ‘Little known, since they are not so spectacular yet not less important to the economic welfare of Britain, are the great contributions by refugees in the production of glass, toys, plastics, chemicals and the creation of fashions for woven and knitted materials.’

An illustrated feature caricatured Kiewe enthusiastically producing slogans for the Popular University, brush in hand, whilst the accompanying German text by ‘R-z’ more seriously acknowledged his significant position within the camp: [H]e is not merely the ‘secretary’ of our Popular University. He is more: its constant Motor. He is the man who perpetually drums together the camp’s imaginative/creative powers. He brings them together, produces new ideas, leads through all differences of opinion with a sense of boyish liberation (but with all due seriousness)—solving his chosen assignment: to aid his camp

48

Hungarian-born Lorant left Germany for Hungary in December 1933 and emigrated to England in March 1934. In London he founded the periodicals Liliput <AQ: Pl. confirm spelling: shd this be Lilliput? YES >and Picture Post, the latter the first major English ‘picture’ magazine. Failing to gain British citizenship, he moved permanently to America in July 1940, ironically just before Kiewe wrote his article.

49

German Jewish émigré Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953) was a renowned progressive architect.

Fleeing to England from Germany in early 1933, he established a partnership with Serge Chermayeff, which continued until the end of 1936. Their most notable collaboration was the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, one of the earliest modernist buildings in England.

comrades by never ceasing to support the spiritual life of our ‘Community of Fate’.

He carries out the organisational toil involved in such work almost incidentally, inconspicuously, and unceremoniously. He (now 34) had proven this great artfulness when he was made manager of a large company at just 21—and went on to develop arts/crafts-based industry in Lithuania, Belgium and England. He acquired his sense for reality when sent to France, England, America and Scandinavia as a reporter on behalf of a leading trade publication. In Soviet Russia he even managed to visit 36 textile factories without having been given the relevant declarations . . .

‘Organisation’, he says, ‘only makes sense when it gives constructive people the framework for development of their individual values. It loses its worth when it constrains instead of furthering.’

The organisation of the spiritual life of our camp has fulfilled these requirements.50 Daily life in camp and in the pages of the Onchan Pioneer were both inevitably preoccupied with release. Cover illustrations inferred it to be an almost mystical experience,51 whilst Kiewe’s farewell party announcement incorporated a design inspired by the ubiquitous barbed wire.52 Artworks were also produced specifically as release gifts. Kiewe drew a

50

‘R-z’ (1940: 3).

51

Celebrating his own release, the cover illustration for the Onchan Pioneer 25, 16 February 1941, by sculptor Hermann Nonnenmacher, depicts a receding and ghostly silhouette, flanked by the camp perimeter fence, under a tumultuous sky.

52

Onchan Pioneer 25, 16 February 1941, 5.

striking pen and ink caricature, depicting Bilbo as the great puppet master of Onchan. Kiewe also inscribed an elegant copperplate testimonial affirming Bilbo’s important contribution to camp culture. Both were presented to Bilbo on his release in November 1940.53 Kiewe himself was released in spring 1941. Internment was not immediately forgotten, and he wrote promptly to the editor of the Onchan Pioneer, suggesting that the magazine, written in ‘the loneliness of internment’, was widely appreciated by those newly released, as it discussed far more weighty topics than those found in some of the weeklies readily available ‘in freedom’ at the news-stands.54 Kiewe subsequently joined his parents, who had relocated to Oxford after the bombing of the London shop, the destination supposedly chosen, somewhat obscurely, because his father ‘liked fishing’.55 Kochan’s transcript notes Kiewe’s wry aside reflecting on the turn of events: ‘In the meantime our shop had closed in the Brompton Road and our staff were running it for themselves. They had been to the Home Office and asked that we should be carefully watched because they knew we were Nazis. And our artists used our designs for their own ends.’56 Kiewe gradually re-established the family business in central Oxford and began to consolidate his quasi-academic approach both within and beyond the city. ‘Confessions’ notably recorded his ambivalent response to his new environment: ‘though the city is blessed with some of the most beautiful buildings . . . artistically its atmosphere has never inspired me. The chief attractions are the libraries and bookshops: they helped me become creative

53

Collection Merry Kerr Woodeson, Brighton. See Dickson, MacDougall, and Smalley (2012).

54

Onchan Pioneer 31, 30 March 1941, 3.

55

Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973: xii).

56

Kochan Interview, p. 6.

once more.’57 Kiewe clearly recognized his status outside mainstream academia whilst nevertheless acknowledging the important support mechanism provided by fellow émigrés within the university: Art history at Oxford had not yet drawn up a chair to sit with the Greats. But refugee art historians had found safe—if unconstructive [sic] haven in Oxford: Professors Paul E. Kahle, Robert Eisler, Paul Jacobsthal, Dr Bruno Fuerst.

With their continental pedestals obsolete, they were often happy just to talk to a German-speaking ‘amateur’. And so I sat at their feet, asking questions, listening to the enlightening conversation. I shall never forget Dr Bruno Fuerst’s kindness and understanding. For almost fourteen years I arranged with him a weekly evening devoted to Norman art and earlier. The Ashmolean Museum was a unique source of visual comparisons.58 Kiewe’s theories found limited outlets beyond Oxford. A double-page article in English and Spanish in the export magazine International Textiles in late 1943, headed ‘Tapestry-Inspired Designs’, featured black and white photographs of his knitted garments for ladies (‘suggested post-war designs’), richly embellished with abstract and figurative patterning, including riders on horseback and mythical creatures.59 Brightly coloured and incorporating a range of cultural influences from oriental to ‘Spanish, French, Swiss, Persian and English’, the ‘gay and clever’ knitwear was sadly attributed only to ‘Our correspondent’ due to an editorial error.

57

<IBT>Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973:</IBT> xii).

58

Ibid.: xiii.

59

International Textiles 11, November 1943, 44–5.

In November 1948, Kiewe published the first booklet ‘Aubusson Tapestries by Jean Lurçat’ in his series Craftsman and Designer, under the auspices of the Maison Français d’Oxford (MFO), and accompanying an exhibition of the same name. The ‘Maison Français d’Oxford’ Exhibition, established in 1946 in the post-war mood of cross-cultural cooperation, and directed by Dr Henri Fluchère,60 was based in north Oxford near Kiewe’s home. The display marked the highpoint in the MFO exhibition calendar for 1948 (le trimester fut corroné), with over two thousand visitors, who also attended associated films and lectures. 61 The MFO continued support for Kiewe into the early 1950s; in late autumn 1952, it hosted Kiewe’s exhibition of ‘Ancient Berber Tapestries and Rugs and Moroccan Embroideries’ with an accompanying illustrated catalogue.62 Despite Kiewe’s amateur status, his passion and enthusiasm secured loans of embroideries from the V&A and from Moroccan museums.

Tapestries were lent by the Pasha of Marrakech and the entire endeavour was supported by the French Embassy.63 The exhibition, noted for ‘tant par la quantité que par la qualité’ received over a thousand visitors.64 Both Professors Fürst and Jacobsthal (Ulmschneider and

60

Dr Fluchère, Shakespeare specialist and translator of T. S. Eliot, was the MFO’s first director from 1946 to 1963. The MFO was originally located at 72 Woodstock Road.

61

Fluchère (1996: 29). Written by the widow of Henri Fluchère, this publication was produced to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘Maison Française d’Oxford’, and was not sold, but rather distributed to interested parties at the time of the anniversary celebrations. The Lurçat display is highlighted under Expositions for 1948.<AQ: Suggest expand for clarity: highlighted in the catalogue under a section called ‘Expositions’?> Agreed

62

The exhibition ran from 17 October to 6 November 1952.

63

Kiewe (1952: title page).

64

Fluchère (1996: 42).

Crawford, Chapter 9, this volume) were thanked in Kiewe’s catalogue acknowledgements, as was the Hungarian émigré sculptor, Oscar Nemon, now residing in Oxford (‘my friends’). 65 From 1950, Kiewe was also writing articles in the newly founded quarterly journal Embroidery, published by the Guild of Embroiderers. His topics included ‘The Forgotten History of Cross-Stitch’,66 ‘Winchester Cathedral Embroideries’,67 and ‘The Traditional Gros-Point Embroideries of Mary Stuart’. 68 He also contributed ‘Embroideries of Queens’ to a special 1953 Coronation issue, in which he discussed pieces worked by a number of royal women, including Jane Seymour, Queen Anne, and the late Queen Mary. 69 The following February, the British Council at Black Hall, St Giles, in central Oxford, hosted his exhibition ‘Traditional Embroideries from the Holy Land and Norway’, accompanied by a publication of the same name, the fifth issue in Kiewe’s Craftsman and Designer Series, now under Kiewe’s own ANI imprint.70 Kiewe prefaced the catalogue with ‘My thanks to Oxford—the place where one can contact so many eminent scholars, prepared to give helpful and frank advice’, and again thanked Fürst, particularly for introducing him to the work of André

65

Kiewe (1952: unpaginated). Oscar Nemon (1906–1985) was a Yugoslavian Jewish émigré who had settled in Oxford in 1939, best known for his portrait bronzes of Winston Churchill.

66

Kiewe (1950: 12–15).

67

Kiewe (1953c: 73–5).

68

Kiewe (1953b: 112–15, 118–19).

69

Kiewe (1953a: 6–10).

70

Kiewe (1954). The cover states ‘Arranged by Heinz Edgar Kiewe. With contributions by Grace M. Crowfoot: Christian Arab Embroideries; Violet Barbour: Muslim Arab Embroideries; Irene Roth: Jewish Yemenite Artisans’. The exhibition ran from 12–24 February 1954.

Grabar, the medievalist. 71 He also gratefully acknowledged the assistance of Grace Crowfoot, distinguished archaeologist at the university, and Sir Ronald Storrs, former British Governor of Jerusalem, for the ‘gracious loan of his royal robes and for some straightforward fatherly criticism’.72 In 1958 ANI published the seventh and final volume: Craftsman and Designer Guide No. 7: The Marriage of the Medieval and the Modern in Aubusson Tapestry Design (Figure 17.3). Dedicated to ‘My Dear Mother’ and subtitled ‘A Symposium’, Kiewe endeavoured in this publication to update Aubusson tapestry with a modern relevance and dynamism. The text included a profile of the contemporary ‘Master’ of the craft, Jean Lurçat;73 and an interview with a ‘Teacher’, Professor E. Maingonnat, Principal of l’École National d’Art Décoratif, Aubusson.74 The foreword in French by Professor Fluchère of the MFO once more confirmed Kiewe’s peripheral status, describing him as ‘amateur passionné des maîtres tapissiers français’.75 Printed in a distinctive blue shade, with seventy illustrations, the

71

Ukrainian-born André Grabar (1896–1990) was an art historian of medieval and Byzantine art who spent much of his career first in France and subsequently in the USA, at Harvard.

72

In 1917 Sir Ronald Storrs (1881–1955) was appointed ‘the first military governor of Jerusalem since Pontius Pilate’, following the creation of the British Mandate in Palestine. In 1921 he became Civil Governor of Jerusalem and Judea. Storrs supported Zionism while protecting the rights of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, earning the hostility of both sides.

73

French artist Jean Lurçat (1892–1966) was noted for his role in the revival of contemporary tapestry.

74

Elie Maingonnat (1892–1966) was Head of the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs d’Aubusson from 1930 to 1958, and was a renowned creator of contemporary tapestry cartoons.

75

Kiewe (1958: x).

booklet featured a full-page advert for materials and instructions required to complete ‘The Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers’, available, of course, from ANI. In the late 1940s, a number of years after release from Onchan, Kiewe made contact again with one of the younger artist contributors to the Onchan Pioneer, Klaus Meyer, who had been interned whilst a student at Camberwell School of Art. From a small announcement in the ‘Personal’ section of the Jewish Chronicle in August 1947, it seems that Meyer had responded to Kiewe’s request for an ‘enthusiastic Jewish artist, gifted and determined to help to create a classic of modern Jewish book illustration’,76 which resulted in Meyer providing a series of images for Kiewe’s eccentric publication on Jewish mysticism and the Hebrew alphabet: The Forgotten Pictorial Language of Israel, published by the Ben Uri Art Gallery in 1951.77 A lecture with the same title was given by Kiewe at the gallery’s premises in Portman Street, central London, in early September 1951. The topic created much controversy, with the sculptor Abraham Melnikoff,78 and art historian Dr Helen Rosenau,79 vigorously disputing the sources of Kiewe’s symbols (he compared the shape of a Torah scroll with the image of a pagan house god) and contradicting his theories, in which he attempted to ‘portray a revolt against religious proliferation and rabbinical savants who denied the existence of a true Hebrew art’. 80 (Curiously, an original typescript by Kiewe, 76

Jewish Chronicle, 1 August 1947, 3.

77

According to archives of the Musée d’art et d’histoire du judaïsme, Paris, the same subject (‘Le langage pictural d’Israel tombe dans l’oubli’) had been the basis for a symposium at the Musée Juif in Paris 1950, although no surviving publication has been traced. Email from Musée d’art et d’histoire du judaïsme to author, 2 February 2013.

78

Avraham/Abraham Melnikoff (1892–1960), émigré sculptor.

79

Helen Rosenau (1900–1984), art historian.

80

Jewish Chronicle, 14 September 1951, 10.

dated 1949 and entitled Jahwism: The Forgotten Pictorial Language of Israel, with photographs of Kiewe’s own singular illustrations, which differ markedly from Meyer’s in the published version, is held in the NAL Archive.81) As an aside, Kiewe proudly kept in his possession for many years a gently humorous watercolour portrait of himself by Meyer, commemorating six months of the Popular University in Onchan (18 May–18 November 1940).

As Kiewe’s quasi-academic endeavours faltered, the shop nevertheless continued to flourish. A cheery ‘Shop Hound’ column in Vogue in May 1962, listing Oxford’s retail highlights, enthusiastically described ANI as ‘Strictly non arty-crafty’.83 A full-page advert elsewhere boldly announced Kiewe’s mission: ‘Specially selected to help enthusiasts to work an heirloom rather than rag rugs, quilts of sales remnants, flour bags embroidered with parachute linen, curtains from unravelled nylons, mats from bulrushes and other horrors of our pretentious Sham Austerity period (Anno 1945–1955).’84 Since Stanley’s death in 1954 the shop had thrived under the dual stewardship of Kiewe and his mother. Kiewe, often colourfully dressed in Fair-Isle slipovers which he had knitted, declared himself to be ‘hooked on the Fair Isle patterns’,85 creating a wonderful disjunction between the large, ruddy faced man, as described by Kochan, and the traditionally feminine activities of knitting and embroidery, in which he indulged. Mally was recorded as a significant presence in the shop, often involved in financial transactions, quiet as Kiewe was ebullient and enthusiastic towards his clients, whether novices in the sphere of textiles or

81

Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library Special Collections, 85.G Box IV.

83

‘Shophound’, Vogue, May 1962, 76.

84

Unidentified newspaper cutting.

85

Kiewe, Biddulph, and Woods (1973: xii).

dedicated experts. Kochan described the shop as a ‘treasure trove, dark, small, full of dark wood furniture, tapestries everywhere. Pigeonholes were filled with a collection of exquisitely coloured, expensive knitting wools.’86 Kiewe displayed a sharp canniness: knitting patterns were only sold with all the yarns necessary to complete the item. And no synthetic fibres were permitted.

Chris Belson, whose father Herald fabricated pieces in which Kiewe’s clients were able to display their completed needlework, such as fire-screens and chairs, was, as a teenager, welcomed into Kiewe’s circle. As a mentor, Kiewe exposed the young art student to a world of new and unexpected visual connections. Together they visited cathedrals and ancient sites in the West Country, such as Avebury, where Kiewe would point out significant details or symbols which seemed to him to be visually linked, though often not supported by any particular academic evidence. Belson sensed that his ‘tutor’—functioning outside mainstream academia—felt some anger and disappointment that his area of expertise was not sufficiently recognized.87 The shop’s headed paper continually attempted to reinforce the reputation of ANI, listing Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, India, and Iran amongst countries in which Kiewe had lectured or provided exhibitions, with ‘London 1938’ and ‘Onchan 1941’ given as the earliest entries.88 Belson described the Kiewe home in Banbury Road, north Oxford, as having very particular window drapes which gave the house a distinctly continental feel. Books and artefacts were everywhere. Kiewe himself was notably hospitable, entertaining figures from across the globe—Belson recalls Ghanaians in colourful national costume, fed lavishly with 86

Conversation with the author, October 2012.

87

Conversation with the author, December 2012.

88

Letter to Miriam Kochan on headed paper written in Kiewe’s characteristic green ink, undated, c.1982.

interesting foodstuffs from Palms Delicatessen in Oxford’s covered market, a business also run by émigrés.

Beyond the world of textiles, Kiewe was a prominent member of the local Jewish community—although he was not particularly observant—and was actively involved with the AJR as a board member in Oxford between July 1958 and July 1967.89 AJR Information reported in February 1954 on his British Council Exhibition;90 in early 1966, its American News section noted his exhibition of British Embroidery and Tapestry displayed at the British Embassy, Washington, and touring to other American cities;91 and in October 1977, its Personalia column announced ‘Knitting Exhibition in Sydney’—‘the first exhibition of its kind in the world’, organized by Kiewe under the auspices of the Australian Wool Corporation.92 Kiewe also enthusiastically supported the Oxford Jewish community’s publication Menorah to which he was a regular contributor, both financially and with esoteric articles, such as ‘The Tchure of Deddington’, in which he discussed the connection in a local village between its historic alleyways and a possible Norman Jewish community. 93 Kiewe, unusually, became one of only two male members of Oxford WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization), retaining his mother’s membership after her death.

89

See Anthony Grenville on the AJR elsewhere in this volume.

90

AJR Information 9(2), February 1954, 8.

91

AJR Information 21(4), April 1966, 4.

92

AJR Information 32(10), October 1977, 12.

93

Menorah, January 1976, collection of Oxford Jewish Congregation.

Between the 1960s and the late 1970s, Kiewe continued to write on textile history under his own imprint; publications included Folk Cross Stitch Design Collected by Sigerus,94 and The Sacred History of Knitting,95 as well as embroidery and tapestry charts. In 1975 his ‘Starting Points’ Exhibition, based on the concept of ‘Civilisation on Loan’ was held at Foyles Gallery in London. 96 Although his theories were largely discredited by his academic peers, Kiewe was able to deliver a ‘valedictory lecture’ at the Oxford University Archaeology Society, shortly before his death. Sally Crawford attended and minuted the meeting as Secretary of the Society, noting that some exasperated members of the audience, with great rudeness, left early: He was supposed to be talking about textiles in archaeology—based on his ‘civilization on loan’ concept . . . In reality, he spoke as if it was his last chance to say what he thought about his life and the world. (It was.) I remember he said that one of the reasons he had to leave Germany was that he had written a paper on Scottish emigrants to Germany and their impact on German society, in which he had pointed out that a number of leading Nazis were of Scottish descent. This, he said, made him very unpopular. He brought a number of objects along for us to look at, including a shawl which he told us had been embroidered by the daughter of the captain of the Titanic. 97 94

Kiewe (1964) illustrated 195 cross-stitch patterns with details of their origins within the medieval Saxon colonists of Transylvania.

95

Kiewe (1971).

96

‘Starting Points’, Foyles Art Gallery, London, 1 October–5 November 1975.

97

Sally Crawford, pers. comm.: archived minutes taken by Sally Crawford, Secretary, of 1267th meeting of the Oxford University Archaeology Society held at the Ashmolean Museum on Tuesday, 19 November 1985.

Kiewe continued to run the shop in Ship Street until a rent rise in summer 1985 prompted closure of the business. He maintained his activities during the last year of his life, despite the lack of premises, and was selling items from his stock to raise funds for Ethiopian Jews recently arrived in Israel in the months prior to his death.

To conclude this brief introduction to Heinz Edgar Kiewe, perhaps his obituary in the Jewish Chronicle most aptly sums up this unusual émigré figure and his contribution to cultural life, emanating from the heart of Oxford: It is not given to many to combine the demands of everyday work with the intensive and enthusiastic pursuit of a hobby, but Kiewe achieved it to the full.

By his deep knowledge of his chosen subject he made a contribution to life which, in its quality, was typical of the refugees who came to this country from Germany in the 1930s.98

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Fluchère, M.-L. (1996). La Maison Française à Oxford il y a cinquante ans (1946–1996).

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Gundlach, F. C. and Richter, U. (eds) (1993). Berlin en vogue: Berliner Mode in der Photographie. Tübingen and Berlin: Berlinische Galerie.

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Kiewe, H. E. (1950). ‘The Forgotten History of Cross-Stitch’. Embroidery 1(4), winter: 12– 15.

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Kiewe, H. E. (1953a). ‘Embroideries of Queens’. Embroidery, Special Coronation Issue 4(2), spring: 6–10.

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Kiewe, H. E., Biddulph, M., and Woods, V. (1973). Civilisation on Loan. Oxford: ANI. Kochan, M. (1983). Britain’s Internees in the Second World War. London: Macmillan.

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