Elizabeth Shaw (artist)

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Elizabeth Shaw
Elizabeth Shaw (1989, Berlin)
Born4 May 1920
Belfast, Ireland
Died27 June 1992(1992-06-27) (aged 72)
Berlin, Germany
Occupation(s)Artist, illustrator and children's book author

Elizabeth Shaw (4 May 1920 – 27 June 1992) was an Irish artist, illustrator and children's book author, active in Germany.[1]

Life and work[edit]

Elizabeth Shaw with Ludwig Turek at a political demonstration for André Stil, 1952

Elizabeth Shaw was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1920. In 1933, she moved to England with her family. From 1938 to 1940, she studied under Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London.[2] In 1940, she contributed to the war effort by working as a mechanic until 1944, when she married Swiss-born sculptor and painter René Graetz. In 1946, they moved to Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany.[2]

Memorial for Elizabeth Shaw at René Graetz' grave site. Her ashes were scattered in the Irish Sea

In Berlin, she first worked for the satirical journal, Ulenspiegel. After it folded, she worked for the satirical magazine Eulenspiegel. In 1950, she began to also draw caricatures for Neues Deutschland. In 1959, she created lithographic portraits of 43 members of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. She illustrated stories by Bertolt Brecht and wrote and illustrated her own children's books. She also illustrated books by James Krüss, Gerhard Holtz-Baumert, Heinz Kahlau and Rainer Kirsch. Shaw also drew a monthly comic titled Sonntagmorgen.[3] Shaw died 1992 in Berlin-Pankow.

Awards and honours[edit]

Shaw received a number of awards for her work, including the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic, the Hans Baltzer Prize, the Leipzig Gutenberg Prize[4] and the Käthe Kollwitz Prize from the Akademie der Künste Berlin.

A primary school in Berlin-Pankow is named after Shaw.

Selected works[edit]

Children's books

(Most of the books listed above were published by the children's book publisher, Beltz & Gelberg.)

Book illustrations
Anthologies
Autobiographies

Sources[edit]

  • Guenter Roese (Ed.): Elizabeth Shaw: Spuren der Erinnerung. Die Aufenthalte an der Ostsee in Bildern, Texten und Dokumenten. Exhibition catalogue. MCM-Art, Berlin (2002), ISBN 3-9807734-0-X

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Irish artist who charmed East German children". BBC News. 5 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b Sarah Haffner, Elizabeth Shaw obituary The Independent (3 July 1992). Retrieved 24 January 2012
  3. ^ "Elizabeth Shaw". lambiek.net. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Die Preisträger des Gutenberg-Preises 1979 – 1988" Archived 30 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine City of Leipzig. Retrieved 24 January 2012 (in German)

External links[edit]

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