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Charles Leirens

  • Charles Leirens was a Belgian-born musician and photographer who emigrated to New York in 1941. While publishing two books on Belgian music, he also gave courses in musicology and photography at the New School for Social Research.
  • Charles
  • Leirens
  • 04-03-1888
  • Gent (BE)
  • 11-04-1963
  • Brussels (BE)
  • PhotographerMusicianMusicologist
  • Charles Leirens was a Belgian-born musician and photographer who emigrated to New York in 1941. While publishing two books on Belgian music, he also gave courses in musicology and photography at the New School for Social Research.

    Word Count: 36

  • Announcement for “Photography with the Miniature Camera” course by Charles Leirens. New School Bulletin. Art Classes 1951/1952, vol. 9, no. 2, p. 33 (© New School course catalog collection, NS-05-01-01. The New School Archives).
  • Charles Leirens was a musician, working in Ghent and Brussels, who in 1928 became director of the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In 1933, after he was forced to leave the Palais des Beaux Arts, he created the Maison d’Art as a centre for concerts, lectures and exhibitions and also founded the Revue Internationale de la Musique magazine. During his time as its editor he begun photographing artists, musicians and writers, developing a career as a photographer. In 1936 he published his first photobook, 20 Portraits d’Artistes, which included images of André Gide, André Malraux and Constant Permerke.

    An invitation from the New School for Social Research to give a course in photography and musicology probably helped Charles Leirens to emigrate to New York in 1941.
    Leirens was one of a number of other photographers on one of the last passenger ships to sail to the U.S. With him on board of the S.S. Winnipeg were Josef Breitenbach, Ylla, Ilse Bing, Fred Stein and Yolla Nichlas. The émigré photographer Fritz Neugass later wrote a record of their emigration in an article (Neugass 1951). When the S. S. Winnipeg encountered problems on the voyage the photographers and the rest of the refugees were required to put up in Port of Spain (Trinidad), where they were placed in a internment camp. As Leirens was an ally he was allowed to live in a hotel, where he ended up staying for eleven months after his visa expired and had to be renewed. However, he held his first photographic exhibition in Trinidad during his stay.

    After his arrival in New York in 1941 or 1942, Charles Leirens started work with the Belgian Government Information Center, offering courses in music and photography. With the help of the Center he was also able to publish two books during the 1940s: Belgian Music (1943) and Belgian Folklore (1947). Besides this work, in 1942 he began his ten-year career at the New School for Social Research. From 1942 to 1951 he gave a number of courses in music: in 1942/43 “Intelligent Listening for the Untrained Music Lover” and “Bach and His Time”; in 1943/44 “Intelligent Listening for the Untrained Music Lover” and “Music in France from 1875–1914”, in 1944/45 “Music for the Untrained Music Lover”, in 1945/46 “The Intellectual Side of Music”, in 1946/47 “Musical Form”, in 1947/48 “The Fuge and the Sonata”, in 1948/49 “The Sixteen Quartets of Beethoven”, in 1949/50 “The Great Instrumental Forms as Exemplified in the Piano Sonatas and the Quartets Of Beethoven” and finally in 1950/51 “Bela Bartok”. His teaching career in the field of photography began in 1947 with his “Portraiture with the Miniature Camera” course. The year following year, until 1951, he gave the “Photography with the Miniature Camera” course and in 1948 and 1949 “Introductory Course in Photography”. Although he re-emigrated to Europe in 1952, Charles Leirens replaced Josef Breitenbach’s course for the autumn semester in 1952 with the title “From a Photographer’s Experience: Some Technique and Subject Matters”. This was his last course at the New School for Social Research. Other émigrés giving lessons in photography and offering photojournalism courses were Lisette Model, Marion Palfi, Kurt Safranski, Alexey Brodovitch and Tim Gidal. The émigrés Fred Stein and Werner Wolff also frequented the New School, showing their commissioned work for the Black Star photo agency, and the German émigré Erika Stone was a student there.

    Charles Leiren’s photographs were shown at quite a few exhibitions in New York City during the 1940s. From 11 to 23 October, 1943, the Photographic Portraits of Prominent Europeans by Charles Leirens exhibition ran under the auspices of the Belgian Information Center at the Bignou Gallery at 32 East 57th Street (Anonymous, 1943). The Bignou Gallery was the New York branch of the former Bignou Gallery in Paris, owned by Étienne Bignou, which was closed in 1933. The gallery, which specialised in French and American painting, reopened in 1935 in the gallery district of Manhattan. In 1946 a portrait of Marc Chagall by Charles Leirens was presented at an exhibition on Marc Chagall at the Museum of Modern Art, with an enlarged print of it featured on the museum wall. In connection with MoMa's Marc Chagall exhibition, the émigré photographer Lotte Jacobi photographed the painter. Besides Lotte Jacobi, the émigré photographers Hermann Landshoff, Fred Stein, Lilly Joss Reich, Ellen Auerbach and Rudy Burckhardt also captured the artistic émigré scene in 1940s' New York.

    After World War II Charles Leirens travelled to Morocco in the summer of 1948. The photographs he took there were exhibited a year later at the New School for Social Research, from 27 January to 18 February, 1949. In the post-war period Charles Leirens also organised a concert, again under the auspices of the Belgian Information Center, providing Belgian music for Belgian émigrés in New York, while at the same promoting American interest in Belgian music. On the programme was music from the 15th and 17th centuries by Guillaume Dufay, Jacob Obrecht and other Belgian composers. The concert was put on in cooperation with the Vassar Choir and held at the Hunter College Assembly Hall (Anonymous 1945).

    Today, Charles Leirens' photographic work is mostly forgotten and has not been honoured in any exhibitions since the 1960s. It is also unknown where the photographer's estate is located. From 15 to 27 October, 1964, a retrospective on Charles Leirens was shown at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In 1969 his portraits of Béla Bartók, Marc Chagall, André Gide and André Malraux were part of the Stretching the Medium exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute.

    Word Count: 898

  • Fritz Neugass. “The saga of the S.S. Winnipeg.” Modern Photography, July 1951, pp. 72–73 (Photo: Helene Roth).
    Cover of photobook 20 Portraits d’artistes by Charles Leirens (Editions de la Connaissance, 1936).
    Announcement for the Photographic Portraits of Prominent Europeans by Charles Leirens exhibition at the Bignou Gallery, published in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 10 October 1943, p. 16.
    Article on Photographic Portraits of Prominent Europeans by Charles Leirens exhibition at the Bignou Gallery, published in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 17 October 1943, p. 32.
    Announcement for “Portraiture with the Miniature Camera” course by Charles Leirens.New School Bulletin. Art Classes 1947/1948, vol. 5, no. 2, p. 29 (© New School course catalog collection, NS-05-01-01. The New School Archives).
    Flyer for Morocco by Charles Leirens exhibition at the New School for Social Research from 27 January to 18 February, 1949 (© New School Publicity Office Records. The New School Archives and Special Collections).
  • Anonymous. "Bignou Gallery." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 17 October 1943, p. 32.

    Anonymous "Elected by Goucher Classes." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10 March 1945, p. 5.

    Charles Leirens. Retrospective, exh. cat. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1964.

    Leirens, Charles. 20 Portraits d’artistes. Editions de la Connaissance, 1936.

    Leirens, Charles. Belgian Music. Belgian Government Information Center, 1943.

    Leirens, Charles. Belgian Folklore. Belgian Government Information Center, 1947.

    Neugass, Fritz. “The saga of the S.S. Winnipeg.” Modern Photography, July 1951, pp. 72–75, 86, 88.

    New School Bulletin. Art Classes 1947/1948, vol. 5, no. 2.

    New School Bulletin. Art Classes 1951/1952, vol. 9, no. 2.

    Word Count: 79

  • Helene Roth
  • New York City, US (1941–1952).

  • 358 East 69th Street, Lennox Hill, New York City (1941–1952).

  • New York
  • Helene Roth. "Charles Leirens." METROMOD Archive, 2021, https://archive.metromod.net/viewer.p/69/2948/object/5138-9603695, last modified: 10-09-2021.
  • Kurt Safranski
    Picture AgentFounding MemberTeacherCartoonistPublisherIllustrator
    New York

    Kurt Safranski was one of the founding members of the Black Star photo agency, a teacher at the New School for Social Research and the author of photojournalistic articles and books.

    Word Count: 31

    Josef Breitenbach
    Photographer
    New York

    On arriving in New York in 1941, the German photographer Josef Breitenbach tried to restart as a portrait, street and experimental photographer, as well as a teacher of photo-history and techniques.

    Word Count: 30

    Lisette Model
    Photographer
    New York

    Lisette Model was an Austrian-born photographer who lived in New York with her husband Evsa Model after emigrating from France. Her street photographs capturing the curiosities of everyday life quickly caught the interest of museums and magazines.

    Word Count: 37

    Fred Stein
    PhotographerLawyer
    New York

    Always accompanied by his camera, the German émigré photographer Fred Stein discovered New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. His pictures provide an human and multifaceted view of the metropolis.

    Word Count: 31

    Alexey Brodovitch
    PhotographerArt DirectorGraphic Designer
    New York

    Alexey Brodovitch was a Belarus-born émigré graphic artist, art director and photographer who, from 1933, worked in New York for Harper’s Bazaar magazine and at the New School for Social Research.

    Word Count: 31

    Rolf Tietgens
    PhotographerEditorWriter
    New York

    Rolf Tietgens was a German émigré photographer who arrived in New York in 1938. Although, in the course of his photographic career, his artistic and surrealist images were published and shown at exhibitions, his work, today, is very little known.

    Word Count: 39

    Marion Palfi
    Photographer
    New York

    Marion Palfi was a German émigré photographer who lived in New York from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her photographic engagement in social and political topics made her name for her use of the camera to draw attention to social injustices.

    Word Count: 41

    Tim Gidal
    PhotographerPublisherArt Historian
    New York

    Tim Gidal was a German-Jewish photographer, publisher and art historian emigrating in 1948 emigrated to New York. Besides his teaching career, he worked as a photojournalist and, along with his wife Sonia Gidal, published youth books.

    Word Count: 35

    Ylla
    Photographer
    New York

    Ylla was an Austrian-born photographer who emigrated to New York in 1941. Specialising in animal photography, she produced not only studio photographs, but also shot outside on urban locations in the metropolis.

    Word Count: 31

    Trude Fleischmann
    Photographer
    New York

    Trude Fleischmann was an Austrian-Jewish portrait and dance photographer who emigrated in 1939 to New York, where she opened a studio in Midtown Manhattan with the photographer Frank Elmer.

    Word Count: 28

    New School for Social Research
    Academy/Art SchoolPhoto SchoolUniversity / Higher Education Institute / Research Institute
    New York

    During the 1940s and 1950s emigrated graphic designers and photographers, along with artists and intellectuals, were given the opportunity to held lectures and workshops at the New School for Social Research.

    Word Count: 31

    Hermann Landshoff
    Photographer
    New York

    Besides outdoor fashion shots, Hermann Landshoff was a portrait and street photographer. During his time in New York, he captured the cultural, artistic and intellectual émigré scene as well as his photographer colleagues.

    Word Count: 33

    Werner Wolff
    Photographer
    New York

    Werner Wolff was forced to leave Germany in 1936 due to his Jewish background and emigrated via Hamburg to New York, where he could follow his career as photographer and photojournalist.

    Word Count: 30

    Erika Stone
    Photographer
    New York

    Erika Stone is a German émigré, who moved to New York with her parents and sister in December 1936, at the age of 12. She went on to carve out a career as photographer.

    Word Count: 32

    Lotte Jacobi
    Photographer
    New York

    In October 1935 the German émigré photographer Lotte Jacobi, together with her sister Ruth Jacobi, opened a photo studio on 57th Street. The two sisters had to leave their parents' photo studio in Berlin in the 1930s and emigrated to New York.

    Word Count: 41

    Ellen Auerbach
    Photographer
    New York

    When she arrived in New York in 1937, the German-born photographer Ellen Auerbach (formerly Rosenberg) had already passed through exile stations in Palestine and Great Britain.

    Word Count: 25

    Lilly Joss
    Photographer
    New York

    Lilly Joss was an émigré freelance photographer in New York. She worked for the Black Star photo agency and magazines and was also a portrait and theatre photographer.

    Word Count: 28

    Rudy Burckhardt
    PhotographerFilmmakerPainter
    New York

    Rudy Burckhardt was a Swiss-born photographer, filmmaker and painter who emigrated from Basle to New York City in 1935. He was well networked within the emerging Abstract Expressionist art scene of 1940s' and 50s'.

    Word Count: 33

    Black Star Agency
    Photo Agency
    New York

    The German émigrés Kurt S(z)afranski, Ern(e)st Mayer and Kurt Kornfeld founded Black Star in 1936. The photo agency established was a well-run networking institution in New York.

    Word Count: 31