Join us as Mike reveals a delightful oil painting by Dora Holzhandler (1928-2015), new to the gallery this week. Plus Max waxes lyrical about tenmoku, the exquisite black glaze seen on pots in our impromptu Jim Malone exhibition, delving back into its history in Chinese and Japanese pottery.
Dora Holzhandler
Born in Paris in 1928 into a family of Polish refugees, Dora Holzhandler was later sent to live with a foster family on a farm in Normandy. She returned to her Jewish family when she was 5 before the family moved to London in 1934. Though she endured the War in England, much of her extended family perished at Auschwitz. In 1948, she attended the Anglo-French Art School in St. John’s Wood.Her childhood memories and Jewish roots permeate her work, as do her Buddhist beliefs, and she claims that “now, as a Buddhist, I can really enjoy being Jewish.” Holzhandler’s innocent art has many fans, including Irish writer Edna O’Brien, television art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and comedian Jack Dee amongst others.
Jim Malone
Jim Malone was born in Sheffield in 1946. After the death of his father, his mother moved the family back to her native Wales. Malone went to train as a teacher in Bangor in 1966 and then accepted a teaching post at a school in Essex in 1969. He continued with his childhood love of drawing and after 3 years of teaching had a portfolio substantial enough to gain him a place at Camberwell School of Art.Malone has had articles published in Pottery Quarterly and Ceramic Review and has exhibited widely throughout the UK and USA. His pots can be found in the collections of the V&A; Ulster Museum, Ireland; Manchester Metropolitan University; Liverpool Museum and Art Gallery to name but a few.
