Born in London to Russian Jewish and Spanish parents, Harry Kernoff moved to Dublin at the age of fourteen and made it his home for life. Kernoff spend his days as an apprentice in his father’s furniture business, taking night classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under Sean Keating, and becoming the first night student to win the Taylor Art Scholarship in 1923. He first exhibited at the RHA just three years later, and continued to do so until the year of his death, becoming a full
member of the academy in 1935. In that same year he held the first of three solo shows at the Victor Waddington Galleries (the others being in 1937 and 1940). International attention came in 1939 when he represented Ireland at the New York World’s Fair.
Kernoff was active in many facets of the visual arts scene, designing set and costumes for Dublin theatre productions, and executing portraits of literary figures and actors. He is best known through his many woodcuts and graphics which have been reproduced continually since their production and many of his works have become somewhat iconic, with a firm place in modern Irish popular culture, through his honest depiction of Dublin and her people.
Harry Kernoff's work featured in Adam's loan exhibitions:
'A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism' (2011). Please click here to view the catalogue.
'Ireland: Her People and Landscape' (2012). Please click here to view the catalogue.
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