Hans Feibusch

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Hans Feibusch (Born 15th August 1898, Germany – Died 18th July 1998 in London England) was a German painter and sculptor who lived and worked in Britain for much of his career, having escaped the Third Reich.

Feibusch was born in Franfurt am Main Germany to Jewish parents and studied in Paris under Andre L'hote. He was becoming successful as an artist when the Third Reich made his life in Germany impossible. He was one of the artists exhibited in the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition - Entartete Kunst - put on by the Nazis to highlight the modernist trends in art they opposed. Feibusch was one of a minority of artists included whose work was relatively conservative and he was probably included for his Jewish heritage. His works in that exhibition, now lost, were two paintings of angels.

Escaping to England he converted to Christianity and was befireinded by the Anglican Bishop Bell of Chichester whose influence caused him to receive the first of his church commissions for murals on religious themes. Among the first of these is the mural in the private ~Bishop's chapel in the Palace at Chichester. This made use of the medieval wall already existing at the chapel's West end, containing blocked windows. Feibusch depicted people looking out of the windows. Many, though not all of his murals are in the Diocese of Chichester.

Feibusch continued to do portraits and easel paintings but it perhaps for his murals his is now best known. He wrote a book Mural Painting, published in 1946 and wrote in a number journals about mural painting. A celebration of his life work was held by the The Twentieth Century Society in 1993 which was the first event of a reappraisal of his work in the final years of his long life.

Feibusch died days short of his hundredth birthday, just after attending a celebration of his work and life held at the Royal College of Art. His estate bequeathed the entire contents of his studio at the time of his death to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. In the last years of his life he reverted to the faith of his youth and was buried with Jewish liturgy at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery.

[edit] Work

His work is varied but representational throughout his career. Feibusch used colour in an Expressionist and often startling way to accentuate the meaning of his works. He especially liked using orange against pinks and acid yellow against blues. The composition, often of closely-grouped figures, are almost neo-classical in their arrangement and mannered, ethereal poses.

    • Newport: There are a series of 12 murals by Feibusch, each over 20 feet (6 metres) high, around the central hall of Newport Civic Centre telling the story of the history of Newport. The murals were commissioned by Newport Corporation in 1960, and painted during the period 1961-4.

He worked in a number of Alnglican churches in the Diocese of Chirchester, including the Pilgrim's progress at St Elizabeth's Eastbourne, the Prodgigal Son in All Saints, Iden and St John Baptising Christ in the baptistery at Chichester Cathedral. Notable church works outside the Diocese of Chichester are his mural at Christchurch Priory, Dorset, visible the whole length of the church, and in London his immense mural of the Judgement in St Albans Holborn, his largest single work, alongside a set of paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross. He carried out several murals in the village of Portmeiron in Wales as a result of his friendship with Clough Williams-Ellis and his portrait of Ellis is held in the National Portrait Gallery.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Mural Painting, published by A&C Black, London 1946

The Revelation of St John the Divine, illustrated by Feibusch,Collins, London 1946

Hans Feibush - the Heat of Vision, Lund Humphries, London 1995

Feibusch Murals: Chichester and Beyond, Alan Powers et al., University College Chichester 2005