Arthur Fleischmann
International Artist and Sculptor 1896 - 1990

John Ratcliffe

On 28 July 1998, a Commemorative Plaque to Arthur Fleischmann was unveiled at 92 Carlton Road, St. John's Wood, London, in the presence of Joy, his widow, and their son, Dominique. Their Excellencies the Austrian and Slovak Ambassadors and many other VIPs also attended, and Lord Gowrie, a friend of the Fleischmanns, paid a personal tribute. The ceremony was organized by Gillian Dawson, coordinator of green plaques for Westminster City Council.

I first came to know Arthur Fleischmann when, from 1956 to 1975, 1 was secretary of the Plastics Institute, as it was during this period that he was doing much of his pioneering work in the sculpture of acrylic material, mainly Perspex with the support of ICI.
He was born in Bratislava in 1896 and, having obtained a medical degree at Prague University in 1921, he decided to pursue art studies first in Prague and then in Vienna. At this time his medium was ceramics, and in 1932 he won a silver medal at the International Exhibition of Christian Art in Padua, for a black-glazed ceramic head of St. John the Baptist. Much of Fleischmann's later work from 1957 to 1985 derived from commissions (22 projects in all) by the Roman Catholic Church, such as altar pieces, stations of the cross, and even tinted acrylic church furnishings. Some of the later items became the subject of severe disagreement in the churches concerned, resulting in their subsequent removal.
Before the Second World War Fleischmann travelled extensively: to Paris, the USA, South Africa and Bali, where he wrote a book Bali through a Sculptor's Eyes. He then settled in Australia where he became a naturalized subject. Here he worked mainly m bronze, for example completing a series of doors commissioned for the State Library of New South Wales. In 1948 he came to England and in that year exhibited at the Royal Academy. Three years later he created the Mermaid Memorial Fountain for the Festival of Britain. In 1956 he provided several works for the liner Reina del Mar, and later for other ships and aircraft.
There followed from 1958 to 1989 numerous commissions and exhibitions of his work in a variety of materials, e.g. Lot's Wife in Perspex in the British Pavilion at the Brussels World Exhibition (attended by a group of Plastics Institute members), the Seattle World Exhibition, Expo 70 in Japan (the first large-scale water sculpture in Perspex), and finally, in 1989, Homage to the Discovery of DNA for the State Library of New South Wales. Arthur Fleischmann's phenomenal output may be judged from the list of 43 selected exhibitions published in Arthur. Fleischmann - a Centennial Celebration, 1896 - 1990. This catalogue offers a superbly illustrated record of the life's work of this remarkable man. It covers examples of his use of a variety of media: wood, terracotta, ivory, silver, resin, wax, glass, cement and, of course, plastics. He sculpted busts of four living popes in bronze, and was the only artist to have done this. Other subjects included Kathleen Ferrier, Joan Collins, Barry Humphries and Lord Robens. At an Interplas exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, the Plastics Institute's stand featured two of Fleischmann's Perspex water sculptures loaned from the garden of his studio in St. John's Wood, where they can still be seen. A more famous public work is the 1977 Silver Jubilee crystal crown in St. Catherine's Dock, London, made from a two ton transparent acrylic block originally designated for use on the set of the film 2001: a Space Odyssey.
It is completely fitting that the fame of this truly international sculptor should have been recognized by the placement of one of London's prestigious green plaques on the wall of his studio, where his widow still lives.

The author gratefully acknowledges permission by Dominique Fleischmann to use illustrations and other material from Arthur Fleischmann - a Centennial Celebration 1896-1990.