Heinz Koppel was a British artist of German origin, who spend much of his life working in Wales.
Background
Koppel was born to Jewish parents in Berlin, where he grew up, but after the Nazi takeover of Germany, they emigrated to Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1933, where he began his education as an artist. In 1938, he and his father Joachim fled to the United Kingdom. His mother, Paula, was plagued by severe arthritis attacks and remained in Czechoslovakia.
Education
Joachim worked in a factory in Pontypridd, whilst Heinz studied art in London, with the German emigre artist, Martin Bloch, who was to be a great influence on Koppel"s later work.
Career
During the Holocaust, she was deported to Theresienstadt and was eventually murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp. Bloch also taught Koppel"s cousin, the artist Harry Weinberger, who had fled to England from Czechoslavakia a year after Koppel. In addition, Koppel became interested in Freudian psychoanalysis, which is reflected in his work.
Other influences included German Expressionism and Surrealism.
From 1944 onwards, Koppel lived in Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, where he taught art to both children and adults, and the surrounding countryside was an important subject in his paintings, showing mystical influences and often bordering on the fantastic. Finally, he settled down in Cwmerfyn, near Aberystwyth, remaining active as an artist, and in his later work he experimented with various materials such as fibreglass and resin.
Koppel"s son Gideon Koppel is an award-winning film maker and the professor of film at Aberystwyth University. Koppel died suddenly in 1980, at the age of 61.
Membership
He was one of the original members of the 56 Group Wales, which set out to raise the profile of modern Welsh art