Teadus ja Kunst
Наука и Искусство
Science and Arts

Benno Schotz

28. VIII. 1891 (Kuressaare) - 11. X. 1984 (Glasgow)

Benno Schotz was the youngest of six children of Jewish parents, Jacob Schotz, a watchmaker, and Cherna Tischa Abramovitch. He was educated at the Gymnasium, Pärnu, Estonia, then at the Grossherzogliche Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1912, he emigrated to Glasgow, where he gained an engineering diploma from the Royal Technical College. From 1914-1923 he worked in the drawing office of Messrs John Brown, a Clydebank shipbuilders, while attending evening classes in sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art.

Schotz became a full time sculptor in 1923. From this point onwards his reputation grew and he became a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy, head of sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art (a post he held from 1938 until his retirement in 1961), and eventually was appointed the Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1963. His pupils included the artist Hannah Frank. His homes at West Campbell Street and later Kirklee Road were a focus for meetings of artists, writers, actors, and politicians. He also helped refugees such as Jankel Adler and Josef Herman. He was a committed Zionist, and also proud of his adopted Scotland. He worked until a few weeks before his death at the age of 93. He was buried in Jerusalem. He was made a Freeman of the City of Glasgow in 1981.

During his career, Schotz produced several hundred portraits and compositions including figure compositions, religious sculptures, semi-abstracts and modelled portraits.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Photo: The Glasgow Herald, June 1981 (from the book „Bronze in my Blood“, Edinburgh, 1981)

HERE you can read the fragments about his life in Estonia (from the autobiographical book „Bronze in my Blood“, Edinburgh, 1981)