Hugo Dachinger
Epithet: Artist (1908-1995)
Record type: Biographies
Biography: Hugo Dachinger studied graphic art in Leipzig, Germany from 1929, financing his studies by working as a window dresser. In 1932 he returned to Vienna to work for Saville & Co., an English company, as a graphic designer. Dachinger’s position in Austria as a socialist, a Jew and an artist became increasingly difficult during the 1930s. Following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938 when on a business trip to Leipzig, he was rendered unable to return to Vienna and so with the assistance of his firm went to Britain.
Dachinger was arrested in June 1940 under Churchill’s policy of the mass internment of enemy aliens. He was interned first in Kempton Park transit camp, then Huyton Camp, Liverpool and finally in Mooragh Camp, Isle of Man. Although only interned for seven months, Dachinger produced a vast quantity of artwork, often painted on newspaper.
Whilst in Mooragh Camp and following his release in January 1941, Dachinger staged exhibitions of his work entitled ‘Art behind barbed wire’. He married in the 1940s and resumed his career as a graphic and commercial artist and designer in London.
Art:
Hugo Dachinger was generally known by his nickname ‘Puck’ Dachinger and this may be said to reflect both his ever youthful spirit and personality and the style of his artwork.
Dachinger’s internment art includes informal domestic views of camp life, portraits of fellow internees and satirical cartoons. Many of the works were painted on sheets of newspaper using children’s palette paints. When supplies were short Dachinger claims he painted with toothpaste and even gravy browning.
Following retirement as a commercial artist and designer, Dachinger continued to produce vast quantities of sketches of scenes around Hampstead. He was a familiar sight in local cafes where he would be seen, often wearing his traditional Austrian jacket, sketching people at the next table.
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 1908
Place of birth: Gmunden, Austria
Date of death: 1995
Place of death: London, England
Name Variant: Dachinger
he was in the same camp as my Grandad Hugo Gallus Nancia Sephugallni - Lillian Waller Report this
So interesting reading about the gentleman - Jo Cooper Report this
Do you have a portrait of him? - Paul Waldman Report this
Comment from Matthew Richardson, Curator: Dear Paul, unfortunately we do not hold a portrait of Hugo Dachinger. - Emma. Digital Collections Assistant Report this
He was my very special friend when I lived in London, West Hampstead I. 1988-89. I spent a lot of time with him at his home and studio where he did some drawings of me. We sometimes spent time in his favourite café in Hampstead where he loved drawing people, the scene and atmosphere with minimal strokes of black pen and sometimes used his cigarette stub for shading, giving things a bit more of a 3D effect. Last time I met Puck in 1994 on another visit to London. I so fondly remember him! - Ismene Gemsjäger Report this
He was my very special friend when I lived in London, West Hampstead I. 1988-89. I spent a lot of time with him at his home and studio where he did some drawings of me. We sometimes spent time in his favourite café in Hampstead where he loved drawing people, the scene and atmosphere with minimal strokes of black pen and sometimes used his cigarette stub for shading, giving things a bit more of a 3D effect. Last time I met Puck in 1994 on another visit to London. I so fondly remember him! - Ismene Gemsjäger Report this
He was my very special friend when I lived in London, West Hampstead I. 1988-89. I spent a lot of time with him at his home and studio where he did some drawings of me. We sometimes spent time in his favourite café in Hampstead where he loved drawing people, the scene and atmosphere with minimal strokes of black pen and sometimes used his cigarette stub for shading, giving things a bit more of a 3D effect. Last time I met Puck in 1994 on another visit to London. I so fondly remember him! - Ismene Gemsjäger Report this
He was my very special friend when I lived in London, West Hampstead I. 1988-89. I spent a lot of time with him at his home and studio where he did some drawings of me. We sometimes spent time in his favourite café in Hampstead where he loved drawing people, the scene and atmosphere with minimal strokes of black pen and sometimes used his cigarette stub for shading, giving things a bit more of a 3D effect. Last time I met Puck in 1994 on another visit to London. I so fondly remember him! - Ismene Gemsjäger Report this