Weighing In
Artist and teacher Michel Salaman was born in Porlock, Somerset, England in 1911, the son of a Jewish father, Major Michael Hewitt Salaman, of the Royal North Devon hussars yeomanry, and his wife, Chattie Baldwin Wake, daughter of Colonel Edward Baldwin Wake of the 21st hussars, and a descendant of Hereward the Wake. Both his parents had studied at the Slade School of Fine Art with Augustus John and Salaman held a fine collection of John's drawings; his sister, Merula Salaman (1914-2000), was also an artist and later married the actor Alec Guinness. Michel Salaman studied at the Slade School of Fine Art under Henry Tonks (1928-31), under Albert Rutherston at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford (1930-31), and then in Paris at the Academie Ranson (1933-34). During his six years in Paris he exhibited alongside Picasso, Braque, Bonnard and Dufy. After returning to England, he exhibited in a group exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery in 1944, also participating in the Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1851-1951 in 1951, but concentrated on teaching. He later taught at Camberwell and Chelsea Schools of Art between the 1940s and mid-1960s, as well as for a short period at the Royal Academy Schools from 1964; his students included Anthony Eyton, Maggi Hambling and Euan Uglow. Salaman's work was included in a mixed exhibition by the Arts Council in 1953; he held a retrospective at the Morley Gallery, London in 1975, and in 1977, was awarded a civil list pension for his services to art. His first commercial exhibition was with Browse and Darby Gallery in Cork Street in 1982, at the age of 71. Michel Salaman died in London, England in 1987. A posthumous retrospective was held at the Ben Uri Gallery in 1996 and a family group show, entitled 'The Salamans' was held by James Huntingdon-Whiteley in 1997. Salaman's work is held in public collections including the South London Art Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
