Feature: Exhibition - Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950) at the Boundary Gallery NW8
Published: 29 April 2010
by GERALD ISAAMAN
WHEN I saw them, I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” Agi Katz explains. “It is one of the most amazing finds I’ve ever made.”
And the reason for such exuberance from the owner of Hampstead’s Boundary Gallery?
During her research for a 60th anniversary exhibition of the death of Bernard Meninsky – one of band of now revered Anglo-Jewish artists – a remarkable discovery of drawings never shown before was made.
What’s more, some were made on copies of the Radio Times and newspapers in the late 1940s, torn up during dark moods and put in the wastebasket by Meninsky at his home in Canfield Gardens, West Hampstead.
But unbeknown to him, his wife Nora retrieved them and tucked them out of sight.
Meninsky, a shy and sensitive man born in Ukraine in 1891, suffered from mental distress and lived a tortured life before sadly committing suicide in 1950. He never achieved the fame and status he deserved, partly because he spent so much of his life teaching, including a spell at the Central School of Speech and Drama, at Swiss Cottage.
When Nora died the whole Meninsky estate was handed over to the Contemporary Art Society, which created the Bequest of Nora Meninsky. From this collection museums such as the Tate Gallery and the British Museum select works to display.
Ms Katz traced the remaining works in the bequest to the north London office of Irving Grose, a trustee, who used to run the Belgrave Gallery in England’s Lane, Hampstead.
“He showed some of the left-over paintings from which I selected six,” she recalls. “Then, just as I was about to leave, he said ‘There are some portfolios of discarded works on paper,’ and produced three portfolios.”
One contained sketches which had been torn up but could be pieced together again. Another contained fragments, while the third contained red ink and pencil sketches on copies of the Radio Times from 1946-48.
Ms Katz bought 17 pieces, and has had some of the torn ones restored.
“Most of the works at the Meninsky exhibition will be for sale,” Ms Katz explains.
“Prices for the works on paper will range between £250 to £13,000 and of the paintings for sale the prices will be from £5,000 to £30,000. “John Russell Taylor, author of the Meninsky biography, has agreed to open the show.”
• Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950) is at the Boundary Gallery, 98 Boundary Road, NW8, from May 7-June 5. 0872 148 2854