Janka Malkovska: Woodcuts

Woodcuts presents the remarkable work in print of Polish artist Janka Malkowska (1912 - 1997).

 

Brought up in Warsaw, Janka studied art in Warsaw and Vienna in the early 1930s, going on to achieve considerable success as an illustrator. At the outbreak of the Second World War she sold up and escaped from the Nazis to the Polish Tatra Mountains where, inspired by Polish folk art, she took up woodcut printing. She eventually came to Scotland in 1947 to be reunited with her husband, Mac, who as a Polish Officer had been posted to a Scottish Battalion in Inveraray.

 

Malkovska taught for many years in Edinburgh and Dunblane and on her retirement in the early seventies became actively involved in Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop and Glasgow Print Studio. One of the longest standing studio members of her time, she produced prints at Glasgow Print Studio from the early 1970s until her death at the age of 85 in 1997. Her positive and enthusiastic personality is fondly remembered by those who knew her and worked with her.