Chaim Stephenson: Between Myth and Reality

Wednesday 1 March –Wednesday 10 May
Chaim Stephenson
Between Myth and Reality

A sculpture exhibition in the Foyer of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Chaim Stephenson worked for over sixty years to produce a wide range of sculpture, of which this exhibition shows but a small part – pieces inspired by the stories in the Old Testament, and those that came out of his lifelong concern for people driven from their homes. Among the former, every sculpture tells a story, familiar and built into our culture and traditions. The refugee statues speak of a universal and contemporary reality that not only mattered profoundly to the artist but affects us all.

Chaim Stephenson was born in Liverpool to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. He served in the mines as a ‘Bevin boy’ before joining a group of young Jews who emigrated to Palestine. After fighting through the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 he joined a kibbutz in western Galilee where he worked as a shepherd, sculpting in his limited free time. After a year in England studying and sculpting, he went back to Israel, and married writer Lynne Reid Banks. They returned to the UK in 1971 with their three sons. He spent the rest of his life as a working artist, dying last year aged 89.

The Living South Africa Memorial by Chaim Stephenson is on permanent display in church and St Martin’s is pleased to display a full exhibition of the work of this remarkable artist.

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