The St John's Wood History Group

We encourage and support historical research for the benefit and enjoyment of all who are interested. Currently, a project is being undertaken, together with NADFAS, of St John's Church. Other members of the group are researching past residents, places of interest, buildings which include mansion blocks, shops, houses and St John's Wood High Street. St John's Wood has always attracted artists, writers and musicians. Many residents, and former residents, have agreed to record their oral histories.

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Bridget Clarke
ARTISTS:Fred Kormis 1897 – 1986

F.I. Kormis was born in Frankfurt in 1897 and in 1910 became an apprentice in a sculptor’s workshop. He served in the Austrian army in the First World War, becoming a prisoner of war in Siberia in 1915 and not being released until 1920, an experience which coloured his career. He returned to Frankfurt until 1932 when Hitler came to power and Kormis as a Jew was banned from working; he moved to Holland and had exhibitions in Amsterdam and the Hague, and then in 1934 came to England, and had his first exhibition in London. In 1940 his studio was bombed and the bulk of his work up to that time was lost. As a result of his experiences, much of his work is memorials to prisoners of war and to the Holocaust. For example, “Marchers,” a memorial sculpture of victims of war on their way to work at concentration camps, was given in 1975 to the Philosophy Department at King’s College London.

Memorial in Gladstone Park to prisoners of War and Concentration Camp victims – this had been allowed to deteriorate over the years and in 2003 was vandalised so that the figures were smashed. The whole area has been restored together with the figures, which were found in pieces in the undergrowth.













In 2006, Angel’s Wings (right) was donated to Queens Park.




He also produced medallions such as this one of Winston Churchill in 1941 which was commissioned by Hodder and Stoughton to illustrate the jacket of a book about Churchill – this is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.








Bronze portrait medallions in the British Museum include King Haakon of Norway, John Winant, General Sikorski, Lord Mountbatten, Anthony Eden, Lord Beaverbrook, Alexander Fleming, Menahem Begin, Louis Golding, J.B.Priestley, Henry Moore, Michael Tippet, Charlie Chaplin (right)



His 1936 medallion of King Edward V111 is in the National Portrait Gallery.



In many of his works the figures seem to be searching for something or someone and the arms are as expressive as the faces.

Bronze resin Primavera from show at Fieldborne Galleries in Queens Grove St John’s Wood in 1982, as was this maquette for The Lovers

by a member of at

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