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NauenThen

Biala

I first took notice of the painter Biala, first name Janice I once heard, in connection with Ford Madox Ford, but she is terrific in her own right. What a pleasure to see the well-chosen show at Tibor de Nagy yesterday. Several small paintings of bouquets, a few large landscapes, this Bonnard-esque interior-exterior. Her work is self-confident in the way of someone with nothing to prove.

Tibor de Nagy's principal, Andy Arnot, said Biala was Ford's literary executor. I wonder what happened to his daughters. Did they have any connection to his estate later in life? I wonder how I can find out more than their birth & death dates.

But that's mostly idle curiosity, I don't need to know all the ins & outs. I remember when Biala died, my friend Becky (equally Ford obsessed) & I were struck by the thought: we could have met her! If only we'd known she was still around. Maybe it's the idea of a living connection to what seems so far in the past, & the pointless oddity of knowing someone who is, say, Charles Darwin's 4th cousin 10 times removed.
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