Lessons
Lesson 1: Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine was a Russian-born French painter whose highly individualistic style, characterized by the use of thick impasto, agitated brushwork, convulsive compositional rhythms, and the presence of disturbing psychological content, is closely related to early 20th-century Expressionism.
Lesson 2: Frank Auerbach
Auerbach exhibited regularly at the Beaux-Arts Gallery until 1963. From 1965 he exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery. He was given an Arts Council retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, London in 1978, and had solo exhibitions at the British Pavilion in the 1986 Venice Biennale, and at the Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1989.
Lesson 3: Dorothy Bohm
Dorothy Bohm was born in East Prussia in 1924. In her work, Bohm used a restricted range of motifs and colour palette and to make sure they connected. Bohm had a clear picture of how photography works; working within a framework, she also felt the necessity of taking a gamble, taking risks and seizing the ‘right’ moment in time.
Lesson 4: Jack Bilbo
Author, art dealer, (self-taught) painter, sculptor and gallery-owner, born in Berlin, Germany. In his youth Bilbo was variously a sailor, tramp, stage designer and reporter. His own work, highly individual, often bizarre, erotic or grotesque, was influenced by Surrealism.
Lesson 5: Joe Rose
Joe Rose was a surrealist artist, born in Woldenberg, Germany. He won a number of awards including the British Empire Medal for services to the Arts. His work is in the Collections of Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem; Nuffield Foundation, London; Essex Arts Committee; Prince Mural Collection of Surrealist Art, Paris; Ben Uri Art Collection, London; New South Wales House, London and Bathurst Municipal Gallery.
Lesson 6: Michael Rothenstein
Michael Rothenstein, 1908-1993, was born in London and was the son of distinguished artist, William Rothenstein. He was a painter and printmaker; but his greatest contribution was to revitalise British printmaking, particularly in the period after the Second World War. He brought a lively and experimental approach that was new at the time.
Lesson 7: Simeon Solomon
Born in to an artistic family, Solomon possessed by far the greatest artistic talent of the family and was something of a prodigy. He was self-taught and achieved early success. Having lost his father in early childhood, he looked to his brother, Abraham Solomon both as substitute father and artistic mentor. He attended F. S. Cary’s Academy in 1852 and followed his brother into the Royal Academy Schools in 1856. However, he preferred the increasingly fashionable Pre-Raphaelite style to the manner of Abraham’s genre subjects.
Lesson 8: Dora Holzhandler
Dora Holzhandler was born in Paris in 1928 of émigré Jewish/Polish parents. Dora’s work focuses on particular themes such as self-portraits, mother and child, religious imagery, lovers and landscapes. It is influenced by her belief in both Jewish and Buddhist religions and incorporates mystical and religious symbolism in a recognisably naïve style.
