Jane Harris in her studio in France
Freeny Yianni of Close Ltd Gallery and Prue O’Day announce that our dearest Jane Harris passed away in France yesterday, aged 65. She was graceful and brave in her battle with cancer. Our deepest love and condolences go out to her devoted husband, sculptor Jiri Kratochvil and beloved son George Kratochvil.
Harris grew up in Dorset on the south coast of England. The sea was a great inspiration. Jane's paintings explored the border between perception and reality, mastering what is surface, positive and negative. Using light she transformed the flat into the three dimensional. The ellipse was at the centre of her paintings. Dualities of space throughout Harris’s paintings would be an enduring commitment in her practice. We met whilst I was working at the Lisson Gallery in 1990. Prue O'Day had supported the work since Harris graduated from Goldsmiths and was a close friend of the family. Her work surrounds us and is testament to a life well lived immersed in creativity and serenity. We will miss her so much.
Freeny Yianni and Prue O'Day will be working together to extend Jane's profile and safeguard her legacy.
The images show Jane in her studio in France working on her last series of paintings. Followed by a selection of photographs of Jane's last solo exhibition at Close Ltd, Somerset, UK in early 2021.
Slade School of Fine Art 1981
MA Fine Art from Goldsmiths College 1991
Lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths from 1991 until 2006
An obituary by Daniel Sturgis, published in The Guardian, can be found here
