Ben Uri collection

Archibald Ziegler was born in Plaistow in 1903 to Jewish-Lithuanian immigrant parents; his mother died when he was aged six and he was orphaned at the age of fourteen. He drew from an early age, working to support himself in a variety of posts including assistant ship’s cook and as a saw maker, before going on to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under Bernard Meninsky. In 1927 he gained a senior scholarship to the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Sir William Rothenstein until 1930. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1931, with his first solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1932. Further solo shows followed at Adams Gallery (1935), Leger Gallery (1938) and at Ben Uri Gallery (1950), with a retrospective in 1955. He also served on Ben Uri's Art Committee in the 1950s.

Ziegler also taught drawing and painting at Martin’s School of Art and art history for the Workers’ Educational Association at Morley College, London. His commissions included a mural for Toynbee Hall in the East End. He lived and worked in Hampstead from the 1950s onwards and was the first living artist to exhibit at Kenwood House before his death in 1971. This major retrospective also marked the Hampstead Heath Centenary. A further retrospective at Burgh House, Hampstead followed in 2018. His daughter is the artist Dahlia Ziegler.