My Grandmother, a portrait.

You can imagine my delight, knee deep in motherhood (both literally and conceptually, as I prepare for the International Women’s Day event on March 3rd at JW3) to read a new article about my late grandmother, Esther Peretz Arad, describing her innate feminism, the independent women she portrayed, and the “crisis of all-consuming motherhood so many artists have had to contemplate” which, I learnt, she also grappled with.

I grew up surrounded by my grandmother’s paintings, many of them indeed depicting the “girls, mothers, grandmothers, young individual women with dreams, fears, and aspirations” that the article celebrates. Yet somehow I had never thought about her work in this way. I had never really thought about her work in any way, just as you never really think about the lives of your school teachers outside the classroom. I had always seen her, and her artwork, through granddaughter eyes.

Here’s a passage from the article, written by Max Waterhouse for the Goldmark Gallery Winter catalogue:

More specifically, she drew independent, working women; mothers and grandmothers; young students, their future ahead of them as hers had been. Women of all ages, shapes, and all sizes, clothed or otherwise. […] Peretz-Arad was not afraid of flesh. But most of all, she was not afraid of truth. She offers us a portrait of womanhood apparently free of judgement, fetish, and idolisation — a precious account, parallel to her imaginative work, that captures in every offhand sketch the vital, everyday tapestry of female life finding its way in an uncertain world.

And most importantly, here are a few examples of her portraits:

Seamstress, Resting. Charcoal and pastel.

Seated women in a Patterned Dress. Pastel, charcoal and wash.

Nurturing Mother and Child. Etching and aquatint.

Seated Woman in a Slip. Ink and wash.

All images courtesy of Goldmark Gallery. You can see many more at: goldmarkart.com/esther-peretz-arad

---

Next week I promise a brand new song, I’m just missing a few final lines… Meanwhile I’ll sign off with two of my pre-motherhood videos. It’s interesting to revisit them from this new perspective!

This one was filmed clandestine on iPhones at MoMA, back in the days of never-ending childhood. Directed and edited by the brilliant Lena Friedrich.

Here, that all-consuming crisis of age and identity had already kicked in… Deliciously directed by Ellis Pendens, with photography by Flo Kohl.