The Collection Shmuel Dresner

Shmuel Dresner was born in Warsaw, Poland. There is scarce information about his life, just a few facts after his arrival to England in August 1945. We know that he was brought to England by the British Government with the help of the CBF from Theresienstadt. Presuming that he was held at Theresienstadt from its opening in 1941, he would have been there for four years, aged 13-17yrs. Records inform that Dresner spent 1945-49 in sanatoriums and it was here that he first started painting. He would have been in recovery (perhaps from his experience of Theresienstadt) from the ages of 17-21yrs and possibly took up painting as a form of physical and emotional therapy. In 1949 he studied at Heatherly School of Art in London, under the tuition of Iain MacNab; and in 1953 he studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, also in London. 1956 saw a move to Paris to attend the André Lhote Academy, with a return to London afterwards. Dresner exhibited extensively from 1955-1981, with many one man shows. His images are collected in numerous private and public collections in the USA, UK, Israel, and in Germany.