An Accentuated Voice

An Accentuated Voice explores stories related to migration to the UK, cultural differences and adaptation to new cultural environment. This page features an archive montage of interview clips from the Oral History Archive at the Central Saint Martins’ Museum & Study Collection.

Hanna Weil, Spansih Village. Oil on board painting, 24 x 30 in. © Hanna Weil

Hanna Weil, 2 works: Church with Lemon; Tulipomania. Gouache on board painting, 21x21 in and 21x17 in. © Hanna Weil

Hanna Weil, Dinner Table with Roast Chicken, 1960. Oil on board painting, 49 x 84 cm. © Hanna Weil

Amal Ghosh, Allegory Series I, (1980’s).
© Amal Ghosh

Amal Ghosh, Allegory Series III, 1987.
© Amal Ghosh

Amal Ghosh, Migration, 1992.
© Amal Ghosh

Fritz Wegner, English Folklore,1980. Water Color on Hot Press Illustration Board, 11.25 x 10 in. © Fritz Wegner

Fritz Wegner, Delphinus the Constellation, 1986. Water Color on Hot Press Illustration Board, 10.25 x 9.25 in. © Fritz Wegner

Fritz Wegner, Grus the Constellation,1986. Water Color on Hot Press Illustration Board, 10.25 x 9.75 in. © Fritz Wegner

Howard Tangye, Emma (Double - Head and Hands, Full Colour), 2001-04. Mixed media on Fabriano Paper, 76.5 x 57.5 cm. © Howard Tangye

Howard Tangye, HT & MH (with Butterfly), 1988-99. Mixed media on paper, 100 x 70 cm. © Howard Tangye

Howard Tangye, Red on Blue, c. 1994. Mixed media on paper. 100 x 70 cm. © Howard Tangye

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This An Accentuated Voice montage is a soundscape of interview fragments shared by fine artist Hanna Weil, illustrator Fritz Wegner, fine artist Amal Ghosh, and fashion illustrator and teacher Howard Tangye.

The soundscapes are based on the Oral History Archive in Central Saint Martins’ Museum & Study Collection.

Archive clips courtesy of the Museum & Study Collection, Central Saint Martins.

Theme Tune by Hannah Kane

An Accentuated Voice Transcript


Theme tune [00:00:00] [Mixed Voices]

Interviewer [00:00:14] I want to start off by asking you about how you originally came to be a student at St. Martins. I believe you were born in Vienna?

Fritz Wegner [00:00:24] I was born in Vienna. And I came over to this country in 1938, a little refugee boy at the age of 13. I was taken in hand by a committee who helped the refugees who were coming to this country after the sort of persecution. The Germans. Because I couldn't speak the language in this case. 

Hanna Weil [00:01:11] And he built this villa for her. The books and everything were on the ground floor, and this was more or less opposite the Brown House, which is, Nazi headquarters. And so when my father appeared in the morning, all sorts of brown uniforms [were] hanging in the cloakroom. Anyway, [this person] was very decent and said, you know, if you only read the first chapter or something in Mein Kampf you will realise, and all this is going to come true... 

Howard Tangye [00:01:59]  ...It was in the north east Queensland. But my family moved to the central part of Queensland, which was Mount [Isa], so it was a mining town where my father worked. We lived there till I was about 13. I loved growing up there. It was a small country town and it was all outdoors, swimming and running...

Amal Ghosh [00:02:28] Not a scholarship as such. The Commonwealth fees were very, very low. I don't remember. It was 33 pound a year [laughs], which has changed quite a lot. I think I was the first one to come to Central from India, so there was quite a lot of support around me. [Morris Kasselmann] was very, very good. He supported me all the time, financially also...

Interviewer [00:03:08]  Did you come alone to England? 

Fritz Wegner [00:03:12] I came on my own. But my father, managed to get out as well. And later on, my mother, too, during the war. He joined the Pioneer Corps. So he did this bit...

Amal Ghosh [00:03:44] ...He looked at my work for a couple of months, I think. He said that you have to change from [Cecil Collins] because [Cecil Collins] teaching is very much to do with what you've done already in India. 

Hanna Weil [00:04:06] They came over to England in 1933, Hitler came []. We came over here in June. 

Interviewer [00:04:21] So did you go to school here? 

Hanna Weil [00:04:23] Yes, I hated it [Laughs]...

Amal Ghosh [00:04:30] [Morris] said that go down and your teacher is there. I came down and there was somebody playing saxophone. I didn't think that he was a teacher because coming from India, which is a very strict kind of academic. Very formal. [] where all the people were on the floor. This guy was playing saxophone, so I came up again to Morris' room, and I said the guy is playing saxophone. I didn't know it was a saxophone, I said he is playing some kind of a flute...

Interviewer [00:05:16] What was your status, Fritz? 

Fritz Wegner [00:05:19] I was a friendly enemy alien. 

Interviewer [00:05:26] Did they give you a British passport? 

Fritz Wegner [00:05:27] Not at that time. I was still sort of classified as an Austrian. So I was told I would either sort of have to work in a factory or good work on the land... 

Amal Ghosh [00:05:51] ...Symbol. And coming from India, I was used to symbols and he got very involved with teaching us about the reason the symbol becomes reasonable... 

Fritz Wegner [00:06:05] As I say, I was told I needed to sort of do will work, and so he suggested that perhaps it would be best if I went to work on the land. So I joined...

Amal Ghosh [00:06:25] ...any of training before where people explain to you why, and it's the first time I realized that there is a reason why you are doing what you were doing, and this is the first one to kind of very articulate. Every single thing he said, he said that this is because of this. This is because of that.  He asked me almost like Cecil Collins, to not kind of think about Indian art or Indian background as my main kind of basis of thinking...

Fritz Wegner [00:07:00] ... Did my time, so to speak. 

Interviewer [00:07:08] How did you find that? 

Fritz Wegner [00:07:10] This is Riseborough? Well, it was very good for me. It was another sort of [life]...

Amal Ghosh [00:07:22] that finished in three weeks or whatever. So it was a very different kind of teaching than I have been used to in India, which was very kind of interesting...

Fritz Wegner [00:07:39] ...And I really enjoyed that. 

Interviewer [00:07:41] Were you with other any friendly aliens? 

Fritz Wegner [00:07:45] Yes, any conscientious objectors we were all sort of thrown together in this hostel... 

Amal Ghosh [00:07:54] Said to me that your drawing is very... Where are you from? I said, I'm from India. [He said] So the drawing doesn't look like Indian at all. It does look European and and it's a pastisse work... 

Fritz Wegner [00:08:10] And so I worked on the land. When the war came to an end. I met Janet in 1945. 

Interviewer [00:08:31] How did you meet her? 

Fritz Wegner [00:08:33] She was doing her war work...  

Amal Ghosh [00:08:37] I understood something which I never understood, which is the rhythm of drawing. And that gave me a way of looking at also Indian art and the new way of looking at it. It kind of changed the whole way of me working. At one point when I came from India, I was selling quite a lot in the galleries. It  is a kind of very academic, good drawing and good paintings...

Fritz Wegner [00:09:17] ...sort of getting by naturalization. And that goes back to sort of the early 60s. 

Interviewer [00:09:28] That took a long time. 

Interviewer [00:09:30] It took a long time because for some reason they wouldn't let me have it when I first applied. Hmm. I think the I think the reason was because I was mixed up with a group of people who were communists at the time.

Howard Tangye [00:10:01] It was a big step. I actually didn't realize that, you know, how naive I was just coming all that way on my own into a foreign country. My intention originally was to go to Rome because, you know, reading about Rome and experience on, you know, the classics, I thought that's the place for me. So I did get to I did go to Rome and I had learned Italian at school, just sort of barely. And I thought, I'm fully equipped. I'll be fine, you know. But of course, I wasn't. So I panicked and I had a ticket that took me to London. So I decided that I will come to England because at least I'll be able to manage the language...

Interviewer [00:10:49] Did they? 

Fritz Wegner [00:10:49] Yes, they did. Well, I can say my father tried the Pioneer Corps. 

Interviewer [00:10:55] Yes. 

Fritz Wegner [00:10:56] And, He was accepted as a citizen after that. 

Hanna Weil [00:11:11] It's where the museum is now. It turned out to be called [Cypher]. So the first thing I to do was to go and where the Secrets Act on the Bible. Another girl who was there, who was terrible [] she was still German because her father couldn't be bothered to fill out the forms...

Fritz Wegner [00:11:47] My father had during the Anschluss happened to be out of the country on business. He was a business man. He was in Belgium at the time. When he heard that Hitler had sort of invaded Austria and that, it was dangerous for him to sort of come back home. I think my mother sort of alerted him that he should, sort of, stay away. He then sort of went to England? He was the one who was able to sort of get visas for us all. Yes. Including me and my sister. 

Fritz Wegner [00:12:46] And I was put on the train by my mother so she didn't see me again. 

Interviewer [00:12:50] I am sure. That's terrible. 

Fritz Wegner [00:12:50] I was thirteen... 

Hanna Weil [00:12:57] ...Were neutralized in 1940, I don't remember it. The war had already poured north.

Interviewer [00:13:05] They didn't have to go to the Isle of Man?

Hanna Weil [00:13:07] No, and I, of course, automatically became [politish with my parent]...

Fritz Wegner [00:13:29] in one's lifetime. 

Interviewer [00:13:31] Exactly. 

Fritz Wegner [00:13:32] Yes, you know what I'm talking about sort of hundreds of years ago. It's last century. So we sort of salvage our lifes and of made our life in this country. 

Voice over [00:13:58] An Accentuated Voice is a soundscape composed of clips from the oral history archive in the museum and study collection at Central St. Martin's. The voices and accounts you have just heard belonged to, Amal Ghosh, Howard Tangye, Hannah Weil, and Fritz Wegner.

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AN ACCENTUATED VOICE

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