Leeds' 'lost' artist Joash Woodrow in the spotlight at Harrogate's 108 Fine Art gallery

The family-run 108 Fine Art gallery, whose late founder Andrew Stewart played a key role in rediscovering the wonderful art of Joash Woodrow in the final years before his death, had been planning to end the show called Celebration before Christmas.

But, so popular has this stunning collection of oil paintings been, the exhibition drawn from the Harrogate gallery’s extensive Joash Woodrow Archive will be in place until after the New Year.

The prolific nature of Woodrow, who was born in Leeds in 1927 to Polish Jewish parents and studied at the Royal College of Art from 1950 to 1953 alongside Peter Blake and Frank Auerbach, is revealed in the fact that most of the paintings and drawings displayed in Celebration have rarely been seen in public.

It was only by chance that Woodrow’s secret life as an artist was discovered in the late 1990s during the clearance of the artist's house when his extensive collection of art books was bought by a local bookshop.

Nine of the books contained drawings by Woodrow and these were discovered by the Leeds artist Christopher Wood who in turn showed the book he had bought to Harrogate art dealer and 108 Fine Art gallery co-founder Andrew Stewart, who was to die aged 62 in April 2022.

Since then Stewart’s legacy – and that of Joash Woodrow – has been carried on by his wife Gillian and daughters Scarlett and India.

The first exhibition of his work was held at 108 Fine Art in 2001, followed by public retrospectives in Leeds, Manchester and the Royal College of Art.

Since his death in 2006, the profile and value of Woodrow’s work has soared with solo exhibitions at The Fine Art Society London and Liverpool University Art Gallery, among many.

The opening of Celebration in Harrogate this month saw a visit by Liz Postlethwaite, author of 2011 play The Resonance of Seclusion – The Life of Joash Woodrow.

Information: https://108fineart.com/