Bernard Meninsky: A singular vision
University of Liverpool Art Gallery
19 October - 21 December 2000
Brilliant draughtsmanship and an exquisite sense of colour combine to create the 'singular vision' of BERNARD MENINSKY (1891 - 1950). Widely considered one of Britain's finest young artists in the 1920s, Meninsky's work has been gradually eclipsed since his untimely death in 1950. This exhibition is the first held in a public gallery for twenty years. The show brings together forty-five drawings, watercolours and oil paintings from his early family studies through to the late pastoral landscape and figure scenes of the 1940s.
'Minky', as he was known to friends, was a Jewish emigré brought to Liverpool as a baby from the Ukraine. He studied at Liverpool School of Art, in Paris, and at the Slade. After a brief but successful period as a war artist Bernard Meninsky achieved critical success in 1919-20 for an exhibition and book of mother and child studies. Over the next three decades he exhibited regularly, and was an elected member of the London Group and New English Art Club. Bernard Meninsky was a gifted teacher of drawing attracting students from London and abroad. In 1935 he designed the sets and costumes for the ballet 'David' produced by the Markova-Dolin company and in 1946 published an illustrated limited edition of Milton's 'Il Penseroso and L'Allegro'.
Tragically, Bernard Meninsky was afflicted by a highly self-critical and sensitive nature, resulting in periods of breakdown and ultimately his suicide in 1950. Driven by "uncertainties, mysteries and doubts" Meninsky was "indefatigable in extending the boundaries of his art". This exhibition, traces his development from the early, tender studies of friends and family, through sensitive and poetic landscapes of the twenties to the monumental and elegaic figure paintings of the 1930s and 40s.
The exhibition has been organised by the University of Liverpool in conjunction with the Contemporary Art Society. The show marks the generous bequest of the artist's estate by his widow, Nora Meninsky, to the CAS. The exhibition tours during 2001 to Leeds, Sheffield, London and Kingston-Upon-Thames.
UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL ART GALLERY
3 Abercromby Square, Liverpool L69 7WY
www.liv.ac.uk
