Valentine Prax (1899-1981)

Born in Algeria, Valentine Prax moved to Paris in 1919 and rapidly became absorbed in the creative milieu of the 1920s avant-garde scene. Prax forged a successful exhibiting career, participating in Salon des Artistes Indépendants, the Salon d’Automne, and Salon des Tuileries and exhibiting with dealers Galerie La Licorne and Galerie Berthe Weill. Having endured persecution by the Nazis, as well as the departure of her partner Ossip Zadkine for New York, Prax's postwar-period works are full of expressive colour and dynamic composition.