Charles Aisen

 

Charles Aisen was born Tzudik Rybajzen in Chelm, Poland, on 16 August 1901. By the age of thirteen he was working as a skilled tinsmith. In 1919 he was recruited into the Polish army and was released in 1923. He emigrated to Australia in 1926. For his first year in Melbourne he worked as a milk carrier. In 1927 he moved to Sydney, where he lived for three years, until his return to Melbourne in 1930. He invented and patented a centrifuge for drying clothes and a quilting machine. With the money from this he established a factory.

 

Throughout his life Aisen has been politically active in various societies, including the Jewish Council against Fascism and Anti-semitism. In the late 1950s he retired to concentrate on social work within and outside the Jewish community in Melbourne. Aisen began attending art classes after visiting Poland in 1965. He experimented with various media, including ceramics and enamel, but settled on tin as a suitable medium to express himself. He died in Melbourne on the 25 February 1991.

 

 © Susan McCormack, ada 1992