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Joash Woodrow (6th April 1927 - 15th February 2006)Joash Woodrow died on the 15th February 2006 at North Manchester General Hospital. His funeral was attended by a small group of family and friends at Philips Park Cemetery, Whitefield. In recent years Joash had become aware of the critical acclaim his work was beginning to receive and in the summer of 2005 he visited Manchester Art Gallery with his brother Saul, to view the first major retrospective exhibition of his paintings. His work provides an incredible artistic legacy that will undoubtedly inspire future generations of artists and continue to provide great pleasure to many. Born in Leeds, Joash Woodrow was one of eight sons and two daughters. His father and mother were of Polish background, marrying in Boston, USA. On moving to Leeds his father worked as a Hebrew scholar and bookseller before finally moving into the textile trade. Joash initially trained at Leeds at College of Art after which he served in the army as a cartographer - Egypt 1945 - 1948. Between 1950 - 1953 he studied drawing and painting at the Royal College of Art, his fellow students and friends including Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake and the novelist Len Deighton. Shortly after graduating from the RCA Joash suffered from a nervous breakdown, returning to his home in Chapel Allerton, Leeds to live with his mother and brother, Israel. From this time Joash began working from home, steadily producing drawings and paintings. Following the death of his mother in 1962 and his brother in 1978, Joash became very prolific, painting increasingly large pictures. During the late 1990's his health began to decline considerably and he was moved to sheltered accommodation in 2000. Over 700 paintings and several thousand drawings were found in his home / studio in 2001. The first exhibition of Joash Woodrow's paintings was held in Harrogate in June 2002. The pictures on display represented the first glimpse of the artists output between 1940 and the 1990's and were exhibited in a bid to raise awareness of this previously unknown artist and his lifetimes work. Since then several further exhibitions have been held in Harrogate. A 240 page book on the artist was published in June 2004. Leeds City Art Gallery held the first public art gallery exhibition of Joash's work 'Images of Leeds', June - September 2004. A retrospective touring exhibition of Joash's work was held at Manchester Art Gallery, 18th June - 4th September 2005, attracting 30,000 visitors. The retrospective continued at the Ben Uri Art Gallery, London, 25th September - 20th November. An exhibition of his large works was held at the Royal College of Art in October 2005. The London exhibitions received considerable enthusiasm from the press, including reviews and articles in The Financial Times, The Spectator and Galleries Magazine. The first large scale retrospective exhibition was held at Leeds Metropolitan University in October 2007. The exhibition was accompanied by a 160 page book on Joash's landscapes published by Leedfs Met. Written by Philip Vann and Jackie Wullschlager and available through 108 Fine Art, and Waterstones bookshops.
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