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Lidia Zavadsky, Israeli, born Poland, 1937-2001.

Felicia Lidia Schneidler was born in Drohobycz, Poland (today, the Ukraine), in 1937. In 1939 her father was exiled to Siberia, and after that he was inducted into the Red Army and was killed in World War II. In 1941 she moved with her mother to the Drohobycz Ghetto, where her mother worked as a seamstress. In 1942, when the Ghetto was liquidated, her mother ran away with her daughter and hid in a cellar until the Lwów Voivodeship was liberated in 1944. After the war Schneidler studied law at the University of Wroclaw. While her family made Aliya to Israel in 1958, Schneidler herself made Aliya only in 1961. In 1962 she began studying pottery making at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. In 1963 she married Pyotr Zavadsky. When she finished her studies she began teaching at Bezalel, and in 1971 she was named a UNESCO member of the International Academy of Ceramics and opened a studio of her own. In 1981 she published her pamphlet, Raku – Techniques and Work Processes as a Bezalel publication.

Zavadsky’s early works included practical tools and three-dimensional sculptures made on a potter’s wheel, heavily influenced by Gedula Ogen. Her work from the 1960s and 1970s that were sculptures in form, were influenced also by themes from the Israeli landscape. In the 1980s her work began to open up to postmodernist influences, and she began to work in porcelain as the main raw material for her art. Between 1981 and 1986 she created sculptural works that combined academic drawing with an examination of the concept of three-dimensionality. Between 1993 and 1997 she produced a series of large-scale sculptural jugs decorated in intensely-colored glazes. These works won wide acclaim in the Israeli art world.

Education

1960, University of Wroclaw, Poland, Law Degree (LLB,LLM)
1961-65 Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, graduated Cum Laude

Teaching

1965-2001 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Department of Ceramics and Glass Design.
1976 Professor, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
1977 Canadian Guild of Potters, Toronto, Canada, Guest Lecturer.
1987-1990 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Head of the Department, Department of Ceramics and Glass Design,
1982 McGregor School of Art, Toowomba, Australia, Guest Lecturer.
1994 Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden, Guest Lecturer

Awards And Prizes

1969 First and Secend Prize, Lamp Design Competition, Ministry of Trade and Industry
1990 First Prize, "Illuminates Objects" Exhibition, Jerusalem House of Quality, Jerusalem
1990 Honorable Mention, International Ceramics Exhibition, Mino, Japan
1990 Jerusalem Prize in Art and Sculpture, Municipality of Jerusalem
1992 Sandberg Grant for Research and/or Development, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1994 Scholarship, America-Israel Cultural Foundation
1994 Artist-in-residence, Euripean Ceramic Work Center, Hertogenbosch, Holland
1996 Guest Artist, Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina, USA