Samuel Robin Spark
| Samuel Robin Spark | |
|---|---|
Samuel Robin Spark in his Edinburgh painting studio in 2015.
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| Born |
Samuel Robin Spark 9 July 1938 Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) |
| Died | 6 August 2016 (aged 78) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Known for | Painting, drawing, writing |
| Movement | Expressive |
Samuel Robin Spark (9 July 1938 – 6 August 2016) was a Scottish artist. He was the son of Sidney Oswald Spark and writer Muriel Spark.
Prolific in his work, he created more than 1,000 paintings, photographs, and short texts and articles about art, Jewish culture, and his own family.
Spark was born in Southern Rhodesia, then a British colony, to Sydney and Muriel Spark. His parents had met in Edinburgh at a dance, and his father had later travelled to Southern Rhodesia, where he worked as a teacher. Muriel had joined Sydney in 1937, and Robin was born the following July in Bulawayo. The marriage soon deteriorated, however, as Sydney, who was 13 years Muriel's senior, suffered from manic depression and had violent tendencies. Sydney refused to divorce Muriel, so Muriel left him, taking Robin with her. They moved first to Cape Town, living in a flat below Princess Frederica of Greece and the young Constantine.
Towards the end of the Second World War Muriel managed to travel back to the United Kingdom by means of a troop ship, but was unable to secure passage for the four-year-old Robin, who was left in a convent school. In September 1945 Muriel brought Robin to Edinburgh. She then went to London to seek work, leaving Robin to be raised by Muriel's Jewish parents, the Cambergs, in their flat in Morningside/Bruntsfield.
Muriel Spark converted to Catholicism in 1952, but Robin chose to remain loyal to Judaism, much to his grandparents' satisfaction. Muriel did not attend his Bar Mitzvah in 1952, but sent 50 pounds for the party afterwards.
Robin was educated at the private Daniel Stewart's College in Edinburgh. He left at the age of 16 to pursue a career in the retail jewellery trade. He served his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1957 to 1959, after which he studied at night school in order to obtain his Highers. In the late 1960s he entered the Civil Service, in which he worked for 20 years in a variety of departments, ending up as Chief Clerk to the Scottish Law Commission.
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