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Joe Kusner outside his home on the day he received his MBE in 2002 |
Inspirational art teacher who fled from Nazis and apartheid
JOE KUSNER, who has died aged 70, will be remembered for the contribution he made to thousands of young people’s lives as head of art at Acland Burghley School.
He worked at the Tufnell Park school from 1963 until his retirement in 1999, and was the driving force behind establishing Acland Burghley as one of the leading arts colleges in the country.
His childhood was traumatic. Born in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, in 1936, his early years were marked by tragedy.
His well-established family ran a factory, but, as German troops flooded into the country, Lithuanians turned on the long-established Jewish community in the capital.
Joe’s mother Hannah was shot dead in front of him, and one of his three sisters was murdered.
The rest of his family looked likely to suffer a similar fate. However, a German officer, disgusted by the cruelty shown by his fellow soldiers, took pity on Joe and his two sisters.
He helped hide them with friendly families and later they escaped by walking across the Austrian Alps into Italy. Joe was aged only seven, and caught typhoid after drinking from brackish mountain pools as his party battled through the mountains to reach safety.
They made southern Italy as the Allies were invading and he was placed on a boat to South Africa, where his aunt and uncle had settled, while another sister travelled to, and finally settled in, Israel.
On arrival in Durban. Joe was faced with a new challenge: he did not speak English or Afrikaans. He quickly picked up both and, after finishing school, and under pressure from his father, studied law, but he knew it was not his calling.
A keen artist, he had won prizes for his work and been offered a place at an art school, which he was unable to take up. Joe decided he wanted to move to Johannesburg and enrolled at art college there.
He met his wife Paula in 1955 and would travel each weekend to her home in the country. She recalls their courting as a battle between herself and her father, but not for the usual reasons of suitability. Joe was firm friends with her dad and would spend hours playing cards with him and chatting instead of paying her the attention she wanted.
They married in 1960, but his time in South Africa was drawing to a close. He fiercely opposed apartheid and became involved with the African National Congress. The atmosphere at university was oppressive as secret police infiltrated student groups and intimidated Joe and his friends.
Friends and colleagues began to flee the country as the political situation deteriorated. When Joe and Paula were placed on a government blacklist, they too began to think of leaving. They were told they were in danger and the government was planning for them to be “taken care of”.
Joe had exhibited his art widely and sold many paintings. With the proceeds, he and Paula decided in 1962 to travel the world and then planned to settle in Spain, where they knew of an artists’ enclave which would welcome them.
On a trip to Europe, which included visits to Italy and Germany, Joe arrived in London in 1963. Welcomed warmly by many South African expatriates who had already found homes in London, he and Paula decided to stay.
Joe started working at Acland Burghley almost immediately after arriving in London.
Professor Tim Bain, an art expert who had met Joe at Witwatersrand University in South Africa, was working at the school. He called Joe up and said he found Burghley too rough, and “couldn’t cope dodging the stones the boys were always throwing at me”.
Joe stepped in to help. In 1964, the head of art left and Joe was invited to apply.
Joe’s colleagues were expected to wear white shirt and ties with sports jackets or suits, but Joe, being the art teacher, was allowed to get away with brightly-coloured shirts, dyed by his wife, and jazzy ties she made from ladies-wear material.
Acland Burghley was a different school then. It had a rough reputation, with no parents’ and teachers’ association, and no meetings with parents.
But Joe was a catalyst for change. His teaching methods were not from a textbook but instinctive.
He would spend about 10 days during the summer holidays transforming his classrooms into works of art. He would choose a theme and call it the “environment”, and then build a work that would be a central theme for his students to use each term.
One installation included turning a classroom into a giant moon crater, with models of space explorers appearing from darkened recesses.
He gave up his Saturdays to run a free children’s art club at his home in Glenhurst Avenue, Gospel Oak. Children from the area would flock round to find out what Joe had been up to and Paula would climb a ladder into the attic with a tray of orange juice to find him holding court, explaining a picture and inspiring those present to paint.
He was awarded an MBE in 2002 for his services to education.
Away from teaching, he was an artist in his own right. His expressionist abstract works, painted at home, were always in demand.
He was keen on music and would blast out classical pieces from a stereo at school. Sport played a huge part in his life. He was a keen Chelsea supporter, perhaps because, when he first moved to London, he lived in Earls Court and he liked the blue of their kit. But he was mad about any sport, avidly following cricket and spending hours glued to snooker on TV.
Joe retired in 1997 after suffering a stroke. But he did not let it hamper his life. He recovered extremely quickly and used his retirement to paint and travel. He went to Berlin in 2004 to find the officer who had saved his life. Sadly, the former Wehrmacht soldier had died the year before.
He also visited New York, Copenhagen and toured Spain, as well as making an annual trip to the Edinburgh Festival.
He doggedly exercised each day, walking each day from his home to cafés in Swain’s Lane, Highgate, where he would meet friends and often share coffee with students keen to chat with a teacher whose kindness, patience and compassion touched everyone fortunate enough to have known him.
Joe died at the weekend following a long fight to regain his health after he was hit by a car two Christmases ago. He had been to his local pub to watch a football match with friends when he was knocked down, just 100 yards from his family home. He did not regain consciousness.
A tribute to Joe Kusner is planned for July 16, with details to be confirmed.
DAN CARRIER |
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Joe was an inspirational lecturer and I am very sad to hear of
his death, I had no idea of the trials he endured but he was a very
caring man and always had time for pupils who were not artistic (i.e.
me and many more) he contributed a great deal to Ackland Burghley, he
will be fondly remembered by all former pupils. My sincere condolences
to his family.
Jan Gore |
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