Henry Rox

Henry Rox, born Heinrich Rosenberg (18 March 1899 - 14 July 1967), was a German-Jewish American artist, sculptor, photographer and university teacher.

Life Henry Rox was born in 1899 in Berlin, the son of the textile merchant Gustav Rosenberg and his wife Zippora, a wealthy Jewish couple from Poland who ran a business for fashion accessories in Berlin.

In 1927 he married Charlotte Fleck (22 April 1898 – 6 March 1971); thereafter they used the names Heinz and Lotte Rosenberg-Fleck. In 1938 they emigrated to New York, and from 1939 Henry Rox worked as a lecturer in sculpture and art history at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, a women's college. In 1948 he was appointed Assistant Professor, and Henry and Lotte Rox obtained American citizenship.

Work Henry Rox created sculptural works first in Berlin (as Heinrich Rosenberg-Fleck) and then, from 1940 onward, in the United States, working in terracotta, wood, and metal. –, busts, and full figures. His style was realistic with subtle expressionist elements. His works were exhibited throughout America and received awards.

While in London, Rox had only very limited space, so he was unable to work in his usual media. He built anthropomorphized fruit and produce scenes on his kitchen table, which he photographed in a studio. These black-and-white and color photographs were described as humorous and full of esprit, and he was able to illustrate several (children's/young adult) books with them: "Tommy Apple and his Adventures in Banana-Land" , "Banana Circus" . The photographs were published in well-known magazines and illustrated periodicals, primarily in the United States – Life, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Family Circle, Graphis Magazine, Detroit Free Press, among others. Henry Rox taught sculpture at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley for more than 25 years and mentored students artistically there, including the performance and video artist Joan Jonas.

Henry Rox, nicknamed "the King of Kitsch", was "a prolific but also very discreet artist, the vast majority of [his] work had fallen into oblivion." Cologne photographer and collector Wolfgang Vollmer has been particularly committed to the rediscovery of Henry Rox's photographic work: he researched Rox's life and work and manages part of the estate. In 2021, Fotohof, as part of an exhibition by Wolfgang Vollmer, also presented works by Henry Rox and published a book of his photographic works.

Publications James Laver, Henry Rox (Illu.), Tommy Apple and his Adventures in Banana-Land, Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, 1935 James Laver, Henry Rox (Illu.), Tommy Apple and Peggy Pear, Jonathan Cape Ltd. London, 1936 Henry Rox, Margaret Fisher, Banana Circus, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1940 Henry Rox, Margaret Fisher, Banana Circus, Hammond, Hammond & Comp. Ltd, London, 1943

Posthumous 2020: Henry Rox Revue, Wolfgang Vollmer, FOTOHOF>EDITION, ISBN 978-3-902993-97-7