Philip Meninsky- an artist who loved life.

Philip Meninsky ; Artist

A brief history of the works and exhibitions of the artist are detailed below.

Born in London of a Jewish Ukranian father "Bernard Meninsky" and Irish mother " Margaret O'Connor"

Philips father was also a much admired artist and no doubt this had much influence on Philips desire to be an "artist".

Philip Meninsky was born in London, the younger son of painter and art teacher Bernard Meninsky. He was brought up and educated in Hertfordshire.

He left school shortly before the outbreak of World War II and subsequently joined his County Regiment and was sent to the Far East. After the fall of Singapore, Meninsky was taken prisoner and put to work on the Siam-Burma railway, where he met Ronald Searle. During captivity and for about three months afterwards, Meninsky made drawings for the Australian Medical Authorities, many of which were used in the War Criminal trials. A collection of seventy of these drawings are in the Imperial War Museum, and were in the Museum's exhibiton of P.o.W. Art in 1978.

After the war, Meninsky settled in Scotland and through William and Mary Armour became associated with Glasgow School of Art, and began to exhibit annually from 1950 in the major Scottish institutions. (See Exhibition List.)

In 1961, he had his first one-man show in Glasgow under the auspices of the Scottish Art Council.

In 1965, he moved to Shropshire where he lived for the next four years. He settled in London in 1970.

His work is in many private collections in Finland, Spain, Russia, France, Germany, America, Canada and"B' ritain , including the personal collection of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh. A group of six pastels recording the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park, before its conversion was on permanent exhibition at the theatre. These were subsequently destroyed by vandals who set fire to the dressing room where they were stored in the Winter months. Meninsky was commissioned by London Weekend T.V. to draw the studies of Francesca Annis as Lillie Langtry in "LILLIE", their award-winning series. In 1982, he co-operated with Tom Conway (B.B.C.2) in a half-hour film for the series, "Artists at War" which was screened in 1983.

In 1981, he began to work with the "Masque Dance Theatre Group" and during the next two years - as well as drawing the dancers - he also designed their sets and costumes.

In 1982 John Field, Artistic Director of London Festival Ballet, having seen some of Meninsky's 'Dancer drawings' invited him to come and work with the company. He continued to do so until 1997, by which time they had changed their name to English National Ballet.

In 1991 he was made 'Appointed Artist' to the Company School, teaching drawing and art history to the students.