Paul Feiler

Born in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1918, Feiler fled to England from Nazi rule in 1933, and from 1936-40 studied at the Slade School of Art alongside Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter. His childhood experiences proved significant: the effects of light and shifting perspectives when mountaineering in the Alps; a visit to the Market Gate of Miletus in the Pergamon Museum; glimpses of colonnades on a trip to Venice in 1947.

Feiler trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, having abandoned a nascent medical career. While appreciating that the training at the Slade would stand him in good stead, he kicked against its traditional nature and pursued his own path. During the war, Feiler was interned, and received his diploma from the Slade (then allied with the Ruskin) in absentia. In 1941, he was employed as an art master at Eastbourne College, then, in 1946, as a teacher at the West of England College of Art. At this time, he had a steady string of shows - at the Royal Academy, the Leicester Galleries, and the Redfern, amongst others. He married June Miles in 1945, with whom he subsequently moved to Bristol.

In 1949, Feiler’s visit to Cornwall inspired minimal, painterly abstractions of the local landscape. Here he met up with schoolmates Heron and Wynter – with whom he exhibited at Bristol Art Gallery in 1949 – and was introduced to William Scott and Peter Lanyon.

Born in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1918, Feiler fled to England from Nazi rule in 1933, and from 1936-40 studied at the Slade School of Art alongside Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter. His childhood experiences proved significant: the effects of light and shifting perspectives when mountaineering in the Alps; a visit to the Market Gate of Miletus in the Pergamon Museum; glimpses of colonnades on a trip to Venice in 1947.

Feiler trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, having abandoned a nascent medical career. While appreciating that the training at the Slade would stand him in good stead, he kicked against its traditional nature and pursued his own path. During the war, Feiler was interned, and received his diploma from the Slade (then allied with the Ruskin) in absentia. In 1941, he was employed as an art master at Eastbourne College, then, in 1946, as a teacher at the West of England College of Art. At this time, he had a steady string of shows - at the Royal Academy, the Leicester Galleries, and the Redfern, amongst others. He married June Miles in 1945, with whom he subsequently moved to Bristol.

In 1949, Feiler’s visit to Cornwall inspired minimal, painterly abstractions of the local landscape. Here he met up with schoolmates Heron and Wynter – with whom he exhibited at Bristol Art Gallery in 1949 – and was introduced to William Scott and Peter Lanyon.

Paul Feiler's Estate is represented by the Redfern Gallery.