Born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Ernst Eisenmayer was arrested and deported to Dachau in 1938, aged 19. His escape is related in his autobiography, A Strange Haircut: A round about story of leaving Vienna 1938/39 (2008). Eisenmayer reached Britain shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939, only to be interned in Onchan Camp, on the Isle of Man, in summer 1940 (where he contributed to the Onchan Pioneer magazine), and later at Mooragh Camp, Ramsey. After his release, Eisenmayer moved to London, establishing his reputation as a painter and mixing with émigré artists including Kokoschka; from the mid 1960s, he embraced sculpture, holding solo exhibitions in London, Osaka and his native Vienna, living in Italy for a time, before returning to his native Austria in later years. Eisenmayer's work explores issues of violence, oppression and the abuse of power. This black and white sketch shows the internment camp in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, composed of rows of requisitioned seaside boarding houses, ringed by barbed wire and patrolled by soldiers. This watercolour was presented to Ben Uri along with a second sketch, Commemorative piece with 29 signatures ("Der Erinnerung Deinen Freunden") which was signed by Eisenmayer and 28 of his fellow internees, presumably at the time of release, and which depicts a young man joyfully bursting through the barbed wire fence which constrained him, in a defiant leap towards freedom.
Interned Artists: Ben Uri and the 80th Anniversary of Internment
Forthcoming exhibition
