Joash Woodrow (1927 - 2006)

An extraordinary Royal College of Art trained painter. Although reclusive for nearly 50 years, he created sophisticated Post-War British Art.

Joash Woodrow was a reclusive English artist born to Polish-Jewish parents in Leeds 1927. His early training was at Leeds College of Art and he later served as an army cartographer in Egypt from 1945 to 1948.

More formal study came at Royal College of Art from 1950 – 1953 where Joash studied drawing & painting with fellow students Frank Auerbach & Peter Blake. Whilst there, he was lectured by Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight; he was considered to be one of the most promising students.

Life events

In 1951 his father Harry (Herzl) died but after finishing his studies in 1953 he stayed in London for a short time. Joash became unwell in 1955, and returned home to Leeds to live a simple but solitary life. Through this period Joash was painting & drawing the scenes around him including landscapes and people. However, the death of his mother in 1961 seems to have been a catalyst for him becoming increasingly focused on his work, seldomly leaving his house in later years.

Medium

With little money, Joash used the resources available to him to create wonderful works of art, including household items and fabrics (like hessian sackcloth and coal sacks) to create canvases to paint on.

Bringing Joash Woodrow paintings to the world

Joash’s work stayed within his home until a chance discovery in a book shop by Leeds artist Christopher Wood in 2000. This led to Saul, (Joash’s brother) inviting Andrew Stewart of 108 Fine Art of Harrogate to visit Joash’s home. Here an incredible 772 paintings and 3500 drawings are found, Joash’s life work.

108 Fine Art, Harrogate have been instrumental in bringing Joash Woodrow’s simple but passionate art to the public domain. They catalogued and conserved these works and provided the first solo exhibition of Joash’s work in 2002.

In 2005 Saul takes Joash to view the first retrospective of his art at Manchester Art Gallery. A year later, in 2006, Joash Woodrow died in Manchester.

In 2009 The Fine Art Society, London hold a highly successful selling exhibition.

Sources: www.artbiogs.co.uk, www.108fineart.com