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Sculptor and teacher, born in Hamburg, Germany, as Heinz Henghes, by which name he is sometimes known. He was educated in Germany and America but was a self-taught sculptor who became head of fine art at Winchester College of Art. Produced the sculpture Orpheus for the 1951 Festival of Britain; it was eventually sited at Camden School for Girls. Birmingham City Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York also hold his work. Lived latterly in Winchester, Hampshire, and in Tursac, Dordogne, France. Remembered by a colleague “as a brusque man. He was a devil – but I liked him!” The Henry Moore Institute latterly acquired from his son Ian a Henghes archive documenting Henry’s colourful life, including his stowing away from Germany to New York, where he lived from 1924–32; his travels through France, Italy and Switzerland before settling in Britain in 1937; his many artistic friendships including the sculptor Brancusi and writers Ezra Pound, Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell; his participation in the post-World War II exhibitions at Battersea Park, the Festival of Britain and in 1953 The Unknown Political Prisoner exhibition; teaching alongside Frank Dobson at the Royal College of Art; and his BBC talks, poetry, plays and essays.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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