60. Dorrit Dekk (b.1917) Car park, Clerkenwell, with another of a London mews, 2 watercolours, both signed, dated '83 and '87, respectively, the first 26.5 x 37cm (10 1/2 x 14 1/2 in), the second 33.5 x 51cm (13 1/4 x 20 in) (2)
Born in Czechoslovakia, Dorrit's family moved to Vienna when she was still a child. Ill health required a further move to Switzerland, but she returned to Vienna in 1936 to study theatre design at the Kunstgewerbe Schule. As Nazi control increased, her Czech citizenship allowed for an easier escape to England, where she was able to continue her studies at the Reimann School, Bauhaus influenced design school that had itself been forced to relocate from Berlin. She served with the WRNS during the war, unusual for a foreign national, where here linguistic skills took her military intelligence.
After the war, her design talent was employed by the Central Office of Information for producing posters, which she continued to do after she established her own practice in the 1950s, where she counted Air France, P&O, British Rail, London Transport, and The National Savings Bank among her more prestigious clients. She was elected Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists in 1956. She also designed the highly popular People at Play mural for the Festival of Britain Travelling Exhibition. As photography eroded the place of the artist/designer, Dorrit turned her talent to more personal expressions in painting, printmaking and collage, and has had exhibitions, including Dorrit Dekk at 90, with the Duncan Campbell Gallery in 2007.
est. £500 – £700
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