Between: emigre artists

Showing posts with label emigre artists. Show all posts

Monday, 31 March 2025

Ben Uri: Essay of the Week

In 2023 I curated an online exhibition for the Ben Uri Gallery which is entitled Exodus & Exile: Migration Themes in Biblical Images. The exhibition includes a range of Biblical images from the Ben Uri Collection in order to explore migration themes through consideration of the images, the Bible passages which inspired them and the relationship between the two. This is because themes of identity and migration feature significantly in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and images from these Bibles are a substantive element of the Ben Uri Collection.

The combination of images and texts enables a range of different reflections, relationships and disjunctions to be explored. The result is that significant synergies can be found between the ancient texts and current issues. In this way, stories and images which may, at first, appear to be describing or defining specific religious doctrines can be seen to take on a shared applicability by exploring or revealing the challenges and changes bound up in the age-old experience of migration.

The Gallery said: "We are delighted to present a new exhibition interpreting works from our collection titled Exodus and Exile. The survey has been curated by Revd Jonathan Evens who has a long-established parallel interest in art and faith and how they are mutually engaging. We are privileged to benefit from his scholarship and innate sensitivity and am sure you too will be inspired by his selection and commentary."

Alongside the exhibition is an essay Debt Owed to Jewish Refugee Art, an updated version of an article I originally wrote for Church Times looking at influential works by émigré Jewish artists that were under threat. The article mentions Ervin Bossanyi, Naomi Blake, Ernst Müller-Blensdorf, Hans Feibusch, and George Mayer-Marton, telling stories of the impact of migration on the work and reputations of these artists.

Following the launch of the exhibition, I wrote an article 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' for Seen and Unseen explaining how curating an exhibition for the Ben Uri Gallery & Museum gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues. This week, this article is Essay of the Week for Ben Uri. Click here to read the article:

'The combination of images and texts I selected from the Ben Uri Collection enabled a range of different reflections, relationships and disjunctions to be explored. These include the aesthetic, anthropological, devotional, historical, sociological and theological. The result is that significant synergies can be found between the ancient texts and current issues. In this way, stories and images which may, at first, appear to be describing or defining specific religious doctrines can be seen to take on a shared applicability by exploring or revealing the challenges and changes bound up in the age-old experience of migration. This was important in writing for an audience including people of all faiths and none, and in writing for an organisation which seeks to surpass ethnic, cultural and religious obstacles to engagement within the arts sector.'

To see 'Exodus & Exile: Migration Themes in Biblical Images' click here, to read my related essay 'Debt Owed to Jewish Refugee Art' click here, for my post about the exhibition and essay click here, and for more on the Ben Uri Gallery click here.

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Dry The River - History Book.

Friday, 26 January 2024

Seen and Unseen: How the incomer’s eye sees identity

My latest article for Seen & Unseen is 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues:

'The combination of images and texts I selected from the Ben Uri Collection enabled a range of different reflections, relationships and disjunctions to be explored. These include the aesthetic, anthropological, devotional, historical, sociological and theological. The result is that significant synergies can be found between the ancient texts and current issues. In this way, stories and images which may, at first, appear to be describing or defining specific religious doctrines can be seen to take on a shared applicability by exploring or revealing the challenges and changes bound up in the age-old experience of migration. This was important in writing for an audience including people of all faiths and none, and in writing for an organisation which seeks to surpass ethnic, cultural and religious obstacles to engagement within the arts sector.'

To see 'Exodus & Exile: Migration Themes in Biblical Images' click here, to read my related essay 'Debt Owed to Jewish Refugee Art' click here, for my post about the exhibition and essay click here, and for more on the Ben Uri Gallery click here.

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

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Kansas - Dust In The Wind.

Monday, 13 November 2023

Ben Uri Gallery - Exodus & Exile: Migration Themes in Biblical Images

The Ben Uri Gallery have just shared a new online exhibition, Exodus & Exile: Migration Themes in Biblical Images, that I have curated for them and a related essay entitled Debt Owed to Jewish Refugee Art.

The exhibition, which is currently their Exhibition of the Week, includes a range of Biblical images from the Ben Uri Collection in order to explore migration themes through consideration of the images, the Bible passages which inspired them and the relationship between the two. This is because themes of identity and migration feature significantly in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and images from these Bibles are a substantive element of the Ben Uri Collection.

The combination of images and texts enables a range of different reflections, relationships and disjunctions to be explored. The result is that significant synergies can be found between the ancient texts and current issues. In this way, stories and images which may, at first, appear to be describing or defining specific religious doctrines can be seen to take on a shared applicability by exploring or revealing the challenges and changes bound up in the age-old experience of migration.

The Gallery write:

"We are delighted to present a new exhibition interpreting works from our collection titled Exodus and Exile. The survey has been curated by Revd Jonathan Evens who has a long-established parallel interest in art and faith and how they are mutually engaging. We are privileged to benefit from his scholarship and innate sensitivity and am sure you too will be inspired by his selection and commentary.

Guest curator, the Revd Jonathan Evens, has a long and distinguished interest in the visual arts and in particular the synergy between, and interpretation of, the artist, the symbolism and the underlying messages of the images created. We are honoured and grateful to Jonathan for investing much time and thought to partner with Ben Uri in this initiative and curate and write on this subject."

My essay Debt Owed to Jewish Refugee Art is an updated version of an article I originally wrote for Church Times looking at influential works by émigré Jewish artists that were under threat. The article mentions Ervin Bossanyi, Naomi Blake, Ernst Müller-Blensdorf, Hans Feibusch, and George Mayer-Marton, telling stories of the impact of migration on the work and reputations of these artists.

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Leonard Cohen - Born In Chains.

Saturday, 7 October 2023

Epiphany: Telling an Alternative History of Modern Art

My latest article is for Epiphany, the magazine of Epiphanyart, an ecumenical society of Christian artists in Britain formed over 70 years ago and affiliated to the international movement Société Internationale des Artistes Chrétiens (SIAC) which supports national Christian arts events in many countries.

Epiphanyart aims: 1.To bring the work of Christian artists to the notice of churches and the public; 2. To provide opportunities for mutual support and encouragement to its members; 3. To provide a resource for exhibition organisers and others to contact and commission artists via its website; and 4. To serve as a focus for all forms of creativity.

This edition of Epiphany features: a review and reflections on the 'Disparate Threads' exhibition; Helen Armstrong on commissions at St Peter's Hove; poetry by Janet Wilkes; Vision for a National Christian Arts Festival; John Armstrong on Joy; and an obituary for Rosemary Roberts.

In my article I give an overview of the history of modern art flagging up the religious influences in order to counter the traditional narrative of modern art as a secular enterprise:

"... this story is not yet consistently or thoroughly told in the standard art histories of modern art, and that matters. From an art historical point of view, it matters because significant strands within the
story of modern art are absent from it and the story, as a whole, is diminished and incomplete.

From the perspective of emerging artists, it matters because, for those wishing to explore spirituality, their range of reference and role models is lessened. For practising artists, it has mattered because, for those wishing to explore spirituality, opportunities to exhibit and sell work have been constrained. For the Church and other faith communities, it matters because the traditional telling of the story, which excludes spirituality, privileges and promotes secularism.

The telling of stories matters because stories are what we live by or within. To see a change maintained in the way this story is told, we all need to be involved in its telling and to be those who tell the story in as great a breadth and depth as we each can manage."

In my first article for Epiphany, I gave an account of two war-time artists who made their way to Britain and ended up making an important contribution to the cultural life of the country through their art.

Join Epiphanyart to receive Epiphany magazine regularly.

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Ed Kowalczyk - Angels On A Razor.

Monday, 8 May 2023

Artlyst: The Art Diary May 2023

My May diary for Artlyst includes mention of Joe Tilson, Alastair Gordon, Dennis Creffield, Jim Ede, Michael Petry, Marcus Lyon, Anne Redpath, Passion Arts, Jake Lever, Evelyn de Morgan, Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian, Ervin Bossányi and Manoucher Yektai:

'Ervin Bossányi: Stained Glass Artist will explore the art of the Hungarian artist in the collections of St Peter’s College Oxford and the stained glass of the College Chapel. Bossányi left Germany for Britain before the Second World War, aware that his family and work would be under threat had he stayed. He joined the large number of émigré artists arriving in Britain, many of whom were Jewish, many of whom explored spirituality within their work, and many of whom would, like Bossányi, receive church commissions in the post-War period. Among his peers in some of these respects were the muralist Hans Feibusch, mosaicist Georg Mayer-Marten, sculptor Ernst Müller-Blensdorf, ceramicist Adam Kossowski, and painter Marian Bohusz-Szyszko. In his life and art, Bossányi fused influences from Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism to create a vision of harmonious, unified human societies that were at one with the natural world. This is a profound and profoundly moving vision of life based both on his experience of peasant life in Hungary and the influence of the art of non-European civilisations. It was a vision forged in a time of great conflict and division, which had a significant personal impact on Bossányi.'

For more on Ervin Bossányi click here, Joe Tilson click here, Alastair Gordon click here, Marcus Lyon click here, and Passion Arts click here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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U2 - Bad.

Monday, 13 June 2022

Never Again: Artistic Peace Projects

Epiphanyart aims: 1.To bring the work of Christian artists to the notice of churches and the public; 2. To provide opportunities for mutual support and encouragement to its members; 3. To provide a resource for exhibition organisers and others to contact and commission artists via its website; and 4. To serve as a focus for all forms of creativity.

This edition of Epiphany features: Kreg Yingst, an American print maker; Helen Armstrong on commissions at St George's Hove; poetry by Janet Wilkes; and Peter Osbourne on Lincoln Cathedral.

Among the many artists forced to flee Nazi Germany were the sculptor Ernst Müller-Blensdorf and Ervin Bossányi. In my article, I give an account of two war-time artists who made their way to Britain and ended up making an important contribution to the cultural life of the country through their art:

"The focus on peace promotion that we find in the work of Blensdorf and Bossányi was characteristic of other émigré artists in this period, a concern shared more widely still within society at the time. ‘Never again’ was a common expression after 1945, symbolizing a universal desire to avoid another world war, a desire that was clearly expressed in 1945 through the establishment of the United Nations. The stories and works of these two demonstrate that artists can make a significant contribution to the cause of peace. In these days of increased conflict within Europe, we would do well to revive our awareness of such artists and find inspiration in their search for peace."

For more on Blensdorf click here and on Bossányi here.

Join Epiphanyart to receive the Epiphany magazine.

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Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No.3.

Friday, 20 May 2022

Remembering Ervin Bossányi, Stained Glass Artist

I'm looking forward to taking part in this event dedicated to Hungarian-born artist Ervin Bossányi (1891-1975), best known for his amazing stained glass windows at Canterbury Cathedral.

Ervin Bossányi (1891-1975) was born in a small village in southern Hungary and educated in Budapest. He worked as a painter and sculptor mainly in northern Germany until his forced emigration in 1934. In due course, he would establish a new career as a notable stained glass artist in England. He created stained glass windows for Senate House Library, University of London, the Tate Gallery (‘The Angel Blesses the Women Washing the Clothes’), the Victoria and Albert Museum (‘Noli me tangere’), as well as for York Minster, the President Woodrow Wilson memorial chapel in Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC and Canterbury Cathedral, among others.

Art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen, founding director of Insiders/Outsiders Festival, will lead a panel discussion with family members, stained glass experts and others to explore the extraordinary life and unique cultural contribution of this still too little-recognised artist.

Panel participants:

Ilona Bossányi: granddaughter of Ervin Bossányi
Revd Jonathan Evens: Team Rector for Wickford and Runwell, who writes regularly on visual arts and has a special interest in émigré artists who worked for the Church
Alfred Fisher MBE: stained glass artist, who worked with Bossányi
Caroline Swash: stained glass artist and author of The 100 Best Stained Glass Sites in London

The event is free but registration via Eventbrite is required - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/remembering-ervin-bossanyi-stained-glass-artist-tickets-339927070017. Doors open at 6.00 pm, event starts at 6.30 pm. The event is hosted by the Liszt Institute London,

17-19 Cockspur St, London SW1Y 5BL.

Read my Artlyst interview with Ilona Bossányi here, my Artlyst article on Refugee artists here, and my Church Times article on émigré artists who worked for the Church here.

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Keith Green - Stained Glass.

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Emigre artists and their cultural impact

This afternoon I met Ilona Bossanyi in person for the first time and was reminded of the impact that emigre artists have had on British culture.

Ilona contacted me after reading an article I wrote for Church Times looking at influential works by émigré Jewish artists, now under threat. The article mentioned her grandfather Ervin Bossanyi, as well as Naomi Blake, Ernst Müller-Blensdorf, Hans Feibusch, and George Mayer-Marton, telling stories of the impact of migration on the work and reputations of these artists and the current threat to certain of their works.

Ilona told me about the chequered history of the stained glass window made by her grandfather for the Tate Gallery which was removed from the building during renovations and not returned. After hearing of this story, Artlyst agreed to publish an interview with Ilona exploring the story of her grandfather's migration to the UK, subsequent career as a prominent stained glass artist, plus the complications of the commission for the Tate, the lack of recognition of the artist once the window was installed, and its subsequent removal combined with the removal of reference to its being in the collection although held within its store.

For Ilona, this story encapsulates many of the difficulties encountered by emigre artists combined with the lack of recognition now afforded to them and their work.

The Insiders Outsiders Festival and the Ben Uri Gallery have been particularly effective in seeking to redress the balance by paying tribute to the indelible contribution of the artists, photographers, writers, architects, designers, actors, film-makers, dancers and musicians, as well as art historians, dealers and publishers, who in fleeing Nazi-dominated Europe in the 1930s so greatly enriched British culture. Books on the subject include the Insiders Outsiders book, Their Safe Haven by Robert Waterhouse, and Art in Exile by Douglas Hall.

I wrote for Artlyst about two exhibitions of work by German refugee artists at Ben Uri Gallery and reviewed their exhibition of Polish emigre artists for Church Times. The latter included work by Marian Bohusz-Szyszko and other exiled Polish artists such as Stanislaw Frenkiel, Adam Kossowski, Henryk Gotlib, Marek Zulawski and Alexander Zyw. I also wrote about Bohusz-Szyszko's fascinating story for Church Times and ArtWay.

The church in the UK played a part in this story by providing commissions for a significant number of emigre artists and during my sabbatical in 2014 I visited some of the churches that had provided such commissions including churches decorated by Adam Kossowski.

Ilona and I reflected on the interest and value that there would be in an exhibition showing work by such artists as these, particularly that which explores religious themes, in order to explore issues of migration, interfaith dialogue, church/art engagement, and the cultural impact of emigre artists.

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Gregory Porter - I Will.

Thursday, 16 September 2021

Artlyst: Ilona Bossanyi interview

My latest interview for Artlyst is with Ilona Bossanyi, granddaughter of the Hungarian émigré artist Ervin Bossanyi:

'Earlier this year I wrote an article about the extent to which artworks in the UK by émigré artists are- under threat, with some requiring urgent restoration and others in buildings that have been closed. Ilona Bossanyi, granddaughter of the Hungarian stained glass artist Ervin Bossanyi, contacted me after reading that article, in which her grandfather was mentioned, as she was concerned about the fate of the stained-glass window that her grandfather had created for the Tate Gallery...

The difficulties émigré artists such as Bossanyi have faced over the years, including the difficulty of receiving appropriate recognition posthumously, is demonstrated by the many strains seen in the story of how An Angel Blessing the Washerwomen of Chartres first came to the Tate and of its subsequent reception...

Yet, as with work by many other émigré artists, a lack of recognition, both of their work and stories, continues into the present even, at times, on the part of institutions that hold such works in trust for future generations.'

The Church Times article that attracted Ilona Bossanyi's interest was based on a conference held at St John's Waterloo to raise awareness about the threat to works by Hans Feibusch and other emigre artists. That article can be found at - https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/11-june/features/features/debt-owed-to-jewish-refugee-art.

See also my Artlyst articles on Refugee Artists: Learning from The Lives Of Others and

Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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Keith Green - Stained Glass.

Friday, 11 June 2021

Church Times: Debt owed to Jewish refugee art

My latest article for Church Times is about influential works by émigré Jewish artists, now under threat, and our debt owed to Jewish refugee art:

'St John’s, Waterloo, is home to two murals by the émigré artist Hans Feibusch. Its Vicar, Canon Giles Goddard, understands more than most the significance of this period, and the issues raised: “Our Feibusch murals have graced St John’s and focused our thoughts for almost 70 years.

“But it is only now that we, and other churches blessed with works of this period, are beginning to see the bigger picture. What did Feibusch and his fellow non-Christian artists bring to our faith and to our understanding of the post-war world? How can we save their legacy, so significant and yet so much at risk? And how can we respond to the art of refugees in Britain today?”

Nick Braithwaite, great-nephew of George Mayer-Marton, is campaigning to save his great-uncle’s vast 1955 Crucifixion mural — a rare combination of fresco and mosaic — at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Rosary, Oldham. He says that these artists brought an “infusion of Continental modernist energy into a conservative art scene in the UK”.'

The article is based on a conference to be held at St John's Waterloo on 16 June - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-jewish-jesus-art-and-faith-in-the-shadow-of-world-war-ii-registration-128521672783.

Other of my articles about the art of refugees can be found at:

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here.

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Leonard Cohen - Born In Chains.

Friday, 30 April 2021

Thought for the Week: Respair

I’ve written the Thought for the Week at St Martin-in-the-Fields this week:

Our HeartEdge friends at St John’s Waterloo have their annual Arts Festival in May and June before closing for a major restoration, their first since 1951. The Waterloo Festival celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, a “return of hope”, for which St John’s, badly damaged by a war-time bomb, was restored and made the official Festival Church. Now, as then, out of a period of crisis and loss comes a fresh determination to make the world a better place.

The Festival is called Respair, the return of hope after a period of despair, a word that fell out of use many centuries ago but one they are reviving as we celebrate the brighter future that vaccines will bring and the rebirth of real-life creativity and shared experience.

Among the stories of hope being shared is that of Jewish émigré artists who used Christian iconography, worked for the Church and contributed to cultural life in post-war Britain. Hans Feibusch, for one, arrived in the UK in the 1930’s and received church commissions which enabled him to survive and thrive. He painted two magnificent murals at St John’s and came to be responsible for more murals in Church of England churches than any other artist in its entire history.

This is a story of effective interfaith dialogue and enjoyment of others' creativity. It is a story where the Church is at the heart of welcome and hospitality combined with awareness of the immense contribution that refugees make to the culture and economy of the countries to which they travel. If it becomes a story we can reinhabit as a nation, then we will know respair.

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Leonard Cohen - It Seemed The Better Way.

Friday, 4 August 2017

Church Times: Where Love & Sorrow Meet, A fractious and yet fruitful embrace & From the Polish spirit

This week's edition of Church Times has much that is of interest beginning with its report on the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which reduced the grounds on which homosexual men could be sent to prison. This includes 'Where Love & Sorrow Meet', a service in St Martin-in-the-Fields, which looked forward as well as back. Click here to read the addresses from that service, including a powerful sermon from Mark Oakley.

Ayla Lepine, an art historian and ordinand, reflects on the idea of the artist-in-residence, and looks at some examples of how it works for churches. Ayla, with Alastair McKay, will also be facilitating taster sessions at Greenbelt from the new online interactive discipleship resource from St Martin-in-the-Fields and the National Gallery, ‘Art and the Bible Story: Inspired to Follow’, which looks at the Biblical story through fine art paintings.

I enter into the world of Polish émigré art, and its link to the hospice pioneer Dame Cicely Saunders, through a review of Art Out of the Bloodlands at Ben Uri Gallery. I have written a wide range of pieces of émigré artists, particularly Polish artists in Britain, and these supplementary articles and posts can be found at:

In this review I note that the current exhibition of Polish art at the Ben Uri Gallery, a recent exhibition by Jamaican artists at St Stephen Walbrook, and the current exhibition “I Am” of work by Middle Eastern women artists at St Martin-in-the-Fields (until 20 August) — all opened within days of each other. London is nothing if not cosmopolitan, and the churches continue to contribute to that diversity and our reflection upon it.

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London Gay Men's Chorus - Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Sunday, 19 March 2017

Learning from The Lives Of Others

My latest article for Artlyst uses exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery and St Martin-in-the-Fields to explore the place of émigré artists in modern British art and then contrast their opportunities and impact with the current hostile environment being created towards refugees.

I end by quoting Will Hutton:

"'Over centuries ... it has been immigrants and refugees who have been part of the alchemy of any country’s success: they are driven, hungry and talented and add to the pool of entrepreneurs, innovators and risk-takers. The hundreds of thousands today who have trekked across continents and dangerous seas are by any standards unusually driven. They are also, as Angela Merkel says, fellow human beings. To receive them well is not only in our interests, it is fundamental to an idea of what it means to be human.’ These exhibitions and the history of émigré artists in the twentieth century reiterate and demonstrate the continuing relevance and significance of that message."

My other Artlyst articles are:

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Bloc Party - Virtue.

Monday, 27 February 2017

Georg Mayer-Marton: work in churches has considerable religious significance

George Mayer-Marton (1897-1960) was born in Gyor, Hungary and served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War. From 1919 to 1924 he studied art in Vienna and Munich. He immigrated to England in 1938 to escape the threat of Nazi Germany.

Mayer-Marton studied the art of Byzantine (face) mosaic at Ravenna between the wars. Following his appointment at Liverpool College of Art in 1952, he received commissions from the Roman Catholic Church to carry out mosaic works at a number of churches in the area, as well as a commission for a font at the Anglican Church of St Michael and All Angels in Tettenhall, West Midlands.

His abiding interest in music was reflected in his painting and mosaics, not only in subject matter but also in the chromatic use of colour, and the feeling for structure and form which characterize his landscapes. In 1957 all the different strands came together with the Pentecost Mosaic, amongst his finest work, now displayed at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

The Pentecost mosaic was originally installed at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Ford, Liverpool and when the church was faced with demolition, a campaign was undertaken by the artist’s niece, Johanna Braithwaite, Robin Riley, Gordon Millar, Brian Drury and Sister Anthony Wilson of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral to save it. The process, supervised by Robin Riley, was technically challenging. The mosaic was transferred to the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in 1989.

The mosaic at the Church of the Holy Rosary is currently under threat following the decision of the Diocese of Salford to close the church. Catherine Pepinster, writing in The Observer, says, 'The arts heritage body, the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, has warned the bishop, the Right Rev John Arnold, that the mosaic’s destruction would be “a very regrettable loss, if not an act of iconoclasm”.

According to the association’s chairman, John Lewis, the émigré artists of postwar Britain, of whom Mayer-Marton was a leading figure, are only now being appreciated by art historians. In a letter to Arnold, Lewis cited the Oldham mosaic as “an unusual commission … which must be preserved. Mayer-Marton’s work in churches during this period has considerable historic and religious significance.”

The eight-metre-high mosaic was installed in the church in the 1950s and is made of natural stone and glass tesserae, giving it a striking sheen, typical of Byzantine work. The original piece had frescoes depicting St John to Jesus’s left and his mother Mary to his right, but these were covered over with white emulsion in 1980.'

His great-nephew, Nick Braithwaite, who is campaigning to save the Oldham mosaic, said: “The mosaic is inspiring and beautiful and it dominates the church. It would be disastrous if it were lost, and would signal a dreadful failure to understand its unique value. We are urging the diocese to think again.

“My great-uncle, who was of Hungarian-Jewish descent, worked on this mosaic just 10 years after the war and losing his parents and brother in the Holocaust. It must have been very poignant for him to work on an image of the suffering Jesus.”'

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Woven Hand - The Speaking Hands.