Joe Rose

Joe Rose

(b. 1915 Waldenburg, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1939, Australia 1957, returned to England in 1972 – d. Tasmania, Australia 1999)

The Frailty of All Things, 1976 Oil on canvas 99.7 x 74.1 cm Signed and dated (lower right) ‘Joe Rose 76’ Ben Uri Collection Presented by the artist 1979

The Australian art critic W E Pidgeon observed of Joe Rose that, ‘Working from his own experiences of European troubles, he reminds us that there is no escape from the human condition and that we all share responsibility for the way it is’. Rose was imprisoned in Sonnenburg concentration camp for anti-Nazi activities in 1933, then in Buchenwald in 1938. In 1939 he escaped to England with his wife and served in the British army throughout the war. Afterwards he studied art in London, relocating to Australia in 1957 and returning to England in 1972, where he was awarded the British Empire Medal for Services to Art.