285 x 225 mm

128 pages

Includes 100 colour illustrations

Hardback

1997

ISBN: 0 85331 724

Dora Holzhandler, born in Paris in 1928, is acclaimed in Britain and overseas for her enchanting, richly decorative paintings of everyday, often specifically Jewish, life. This is the first monograph to be published on Dora Holzhandler, and it is illustrated with 100 full-colour reproductions of her paintings and drawings.

Philip Vann's text, based on numerous conversations with the artist, traces the main events of her life and explores the most important themes in her painting. Rooted in a mystical perception of reality, her pictures are non-academic in perspective and depict the timeless Jewish world, her own childhood in Paris and London, and more general celebrations of humanity: lovers embracing, motherhood, religious contemplation.

Sparkling with innocent humour, her paintings draw no distinction between the sacred and mundane: a little girl skateboarding through the park, rabbis dancing by Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, a mother lighting candles for the Jewish Sabbath, Punks on London's Kings Road, a solitary lady reading a Sutra - no subject in Dora's paintings is regarded as intrinsically holier than another. The twin strands of Dora's spiritual identity - Jewish and Buddhist - are frequently in evidence in her work.

Described by the art critic Eric Newton as a 'temperamental primitive', Dora Holzhandler is renowned for her pictures' intricately detailed patterns - typically squares and floral motifs - which are reminiscent of Polish folk-art, Persian miniatures and Byzantine mosaics.

This beautifully illustrated book will confirm Dora Holzhandler's position as one of the most original artists working in Britain today.