Morris Kestelman
| Morris Kestelman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
5 October 1905 London |
| Died | 15 June 1998 (aged 92) London |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | |
| Known for | Art teacher and painter |
Morris Kestelman (5 October 1905 – 15 June 1998) was a British artist and teacher. Kestelman was a full-time art teacher and only began exhibiting on a regular basis towards the end of his life and is now best known for the paintings of working people and landscapes he produced during the 1940s and 1950s as well as his later abstract work.
Kestelmans' parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and he was born and raised in the midst of the Jewish community in Whitechapel in the East End of London, where his father worked as a cabinet maker. Kestelman obtained a scholarship to the Central School of Art and Design in 1922, where his teachers included both A.S. Hartrick and Bernard Meninsky. Meninsky introduced Kestelman, who became a lifelong friend, to the London Group and he, Kestelman, helped with the organization of the Group's 1926 exhibition. Hartricks' teaching led Kestelman to an appreciation of French art and he would visit France for extended periods most years from 1930 onwards.
After graduating from the Central School in 1925, Kestelman enrolled at the Royal College of Art where he studied until 1929. During this time he developed a talent for theatre and stage design such that he created a number of costume designs for a 1929 production of The Magic Flute at Birkbeck College. Later he created sets for Carmen at Sadler's Wells in 1940 and for several productions by the Old Vic Company including the 1944 staging of Richard III starring Ralph Richardson, Sybil Thorndike and Laurence Olivier at the New Theatre. The publisher Noel Carrington commissioned Kestelman to produce a large series of pastel drawings for a book on the Bertram Mills Circus. The book was never published due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
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