Julie Held LG is London born and bred. But her parents were refugees from Nazi Germany and in this film we see how her feelings about them and what they went through are reflected in her compelling portraits.
Julie Held LG is London born and bred. But her parents were refugees from Nazi Germany and in this film we see how her feelings about them and what they went through are reflected in her compelling portraits.
Julie also delves into her extraordinary paintings of shops and shoes. They are visual metaphors for the feelings many refugees have of not quite belonging, but they also explore the roles we are all forced to play and the transience of life itself; how today’s longed-for objects of beauty and seduction become tomorrow’s charity shop castoffs, waiting for a new life to animate them once again.
Julie teaches at The Royal Drawing School and was the invited portrait artist at the Royal Portrait Exhibition 2018 where her painting of her elderly father, The Last Portrait, was shown.
Part of Fractured Worlds, a series of short, filmed interviews to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable contribution first and second generation refugees from Nazi Europe have made to the arts in Britain. Interviews filmed by Andrew Snell, assisted by Eileen Hughes
with thanks to Micropathology Ltd.