Harry Weinberger (1924 Berlin, Germany – 2009 Leamington Spa, England)
Harry Weinberger was born into a comfortable Jewish family in Berlin, Germany in 1924. Following the rise of Nazism, his family moved to Czechoslovakia in 1933, where they remained for six years, then in 1939, he fled to England with his sister, Ina, on the final Kindertransport. Initially apprenticed as a toolmaker, Weinberger joined the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in 1944, and subsequently transferred to the Jewish Brigade, serving in Italy. After the war he attended a life-class run by Welsh painter, Ceri Richards, and decided to focus on art. At Richards' suggestion he enrolled at Chelsea School of Art in London, where he was criticised for his 'crude' colour and moved to Goldsmiths College, but his main influence was Martin Bloch, who helped him to establish and develop his signature style and robust palette, and to forge a career both as a painter and a respected art teacher. He held a solo exhibition at London's Leger Gallery in 1952. In 1950 he trained as a teacher in Brighton and subsequently taught art at schools in London and Reading, eventually becoming head of painting at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University) in 1964. Weinberger's close friend, the writer Iris Murdoch, speaking of his artistic lineage, considered the Impressionists and Cubists, as well as Van Gogh and Matisse,
