Ernst Eisenmayer was interned on the Island during the Second World War where he began an artistic career that has stretched through to this day (he is now aged 92 years and lives once again in Austria.
He has practised his art in many media including sketch, painting, impressionism, sculpture, collage and computer generated pictures.
I have to confess that my knowledge of Art is limited but I know what I like and I'm afraid that this gentleman's work didn't really grasp my imagination (or lack of) but what was far more interesting to me was the story of the man himself.
Sent to Dachau at eighteen years of age for trying to leave the German Empire (Austria had just been subsumed,) Ernst's brother at only sixteen was lucky enough to be transported to England.
Apparently at that time, mass extermination of Jews and dissidents hadn't begun and fortunately the man who had sponsored the flight of his sibling heard of his plight and was also able to rescue and bring him to the United Kingdom. Most of his peers that did manage to flee were well connected or rich but that wasn't the case with Herr Eisenmayer and it was just luck and the generosity of his sponsor that saved him.
The exhibition is a journey through his life and work, accompanied also by a video interview (which I didn't have the opportunity to see.) Many of his recollections by sketch & painting of his time in Dachau were recorded during his internment, he also contributed to the internees' magazine and you can have fun trying to work out the local places where one or two of his pictures were drawn.
For a more comprehensive preview of the Exhibition see
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