Lidia Zavadsky

Lidia Zavadsky
Born Drohobycz, then Poland
Died Jerusalem, Israel
Known for Ceramic design

Lidia Zavadsky (1937 — November 8, 2001) was an Israeli visual artist. Her work mainly focused on ceramics sculpting. She was head of the ceramics department in Bezalel Academy of Art. She was a Holocaust survivor. Before immigrating to Israel she graduated in law studies at the University of Wrocław.

Biography

Lidia Zavadsky (originally as Felicia Schindler) was born in 1937 in Drohobych, Poland (today Ukraine).  When she was 2 years old her father was exiled to Siberia and later was recruited to the Red Army and his traces were lost.  After the Nazi invasion she stayed with her mother in the ghetto of Drohobycz . After elimination of the ghetto they found a hiding place in a cellar for two years. Towards the end of World War II they were taken to Wroclaw, Poland. There her mother remarried and gave birth to her half-brother at 1946.

In 1958 her family immigrated to Israel while she stayed in Poland to finish her law studies. After graduation she joined her family in 1961. In Israel she found difficulties in adapting to the new conditions of living and could not use her academic skills for employment. As a result, she was employed in cleaning and soon felt discontented, turning to the Polish embassy to ask for a permit to return. There she met a young man Pyotr who came in the same purpose but then both of them found support in each other and decided to stay in Israel and start a new career in art studies at the Bezalel Academy.  

Due to the lack of a sculpture studies department at Bezalel Academy, she opted to study in the ceramics department instead. During those days the department was focused on pottery studies. She supported her studies through cleaning the department's works, as well as restoring pottery at archaeological digs.  

She excelled in her studies and after graduation she joined the staff of the department in 1965. 

In 1966 her elder daughter was born.and in 1977 her son was born. In 1982 she was invited as guest lecturer for McGregor Art School at Toowoomba , Australia. 1981 her book about Rakou techniques and working processes was published. She was later appointed as a professor at the Bezalel Academy. In the same year she was guest lecturer for series of workshops in Canada. In 1987 she was nominated the head of the ceramics department in Bezalel.

During her years in Bezalel she transformed the department of ceramics from mere department of pottery into high standard art of sculpture.Her art was characterized by deep intellectual curiosity and permanent experimentation with techniques, materials and ways of expression. She studied ancient traditional Chinese glazing methods of the Tang Dynasty in China and applied them into her art work while creating huge human size jars in intensively bright colors derived from using toxic lead. During her artistic life she got numerous grants and awards, among them the Sandberg Prize of the Israel museum (1992). It was the first time ever that this prize was endowed to an artist in the medium of ceramics. This endowment enabled her to start her research and experimentation with ancient traditional Chinese glazes. 

Her last monumental work of art was a life size realistic sculpture in the image of a bright green donkey. it was displayed at the first Biennial of ceramics in Haaretz Museum and later she let it as a gift for the museum. This image was inspired by a real alive donkey whom she cured and gave care in her backyard .  

As a consequence of using toxic lead for her art, Lidia developed cancer and died at the age of 64 in November 2001. Her works are kept in numerous local and international public collections. 

One person Exhibitions

Grants & Awards 

Bibliography

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