Born: 1937 Budapest, Hungary
Died: 2021 London, England
Year of Migration to the UK: 1956
Other name/s: Agi Rojko
Biography
Gallerist, curator and art dealer, Agi Katz (née Rojko) was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary in 1937. During the Second World War, the family took shelter in Romania to escape Nazi persecution, later returning to Budapest, where Agi was educated. In 1956, aged 18 and a medical student, she was part of the initial uprising against the Soviet-imposed regime during the Hungarian Revolution and survived a tank shell that tore through the window of the block of flats where she lived with her parents and brother. She recalled, 'There was complete chaos after the students I was with toppled Stalin’s statue in front of the Houses of Parliament. Three days later the Russian tanks moved in. Everything was turned upside down'- more than 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Russian troops died and she was one of some 200,000 refugees who fled Budapest.
After a brief period in Vienna, she found refuge in the UK, an experience about which she reflected, 'I was very lucky and made welcome when I arrived in London' (Agi Katz, 'When Art is Not Where the Home Is, Camden New Journal, 2017), she was initially supported by funding for political asylum seekers; a further grant enabled her to study at the London School of Economics, where she first met her future husband, Peter. Nevertheless, she moved 14 times within London in three years, washed dishes in restaurants, and shared a YWCA room with five other girls until her studies in international relations and sociology, combined with her gift for languages, won her two appointments as an economic assistant with chemical companies. After marrying Peter in 1962, the couple moved to Highgate, north London. Always passionately interested in art, following the birth of her first child, she took an art course at the Camden Arts Centre, then, in 1973, gained a scholarship to the Chelsea School of Art, where she 'finally found somewhat I wanted to do more than anything else – and that was wonderful' ('When Art is Not Where the Home Is').
In 1976, upon graduating from Chelsea, she began working part-time at Lauderdale House arts and education centre in Highgate, before being appointed curator at Ben Uri Gallery in 1979, where she exhibited the work of Jewish artists, especially refugee artists, and included their work in touring shows at major international venues including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Jerusalem's Israel Museum. Important exhibitions included: Epstein: Centenary Exhibition (1980), David Bomberg and Family (1981), Mark Gertler: The Early and the Late Years (1982) and David Bomberg in the Holy Land (1984). In 1986, after leaving Ben Uri, she founded the Boundary Gallery at 116 Boundary Road, St. John's Wood, London mounting exhibitions including: The Anglo-French Art School and Ten Polish Artists in Postwar Britain, as well as Jacob Epstein: In Praise of Humanity (1989), and retrospectives of the work of David Bomberg, Josef Herman and Eva Frankfurther, one of many notable exhibitions on women artists. She developed close relationships with many of the artists and estates that she worked with including Josef Herman and Lilian Bomberg. In her own words, 'the Boundary Gallery [...] always concentrated on quality: good draughtsmanship, wonderful colours, great composition and, of course [...] representational art' (Boundary Gallery website). The annual Boundary Gallery Figurative Art Prize which ran from 2005-08, aimed to restore the status of figurative art and was open to final year and postgraduate art students based in the UK, leading to the discovery of new, young artists, who subsequently became part of the Boundary Gallery stable. Despite closing the Boundary Gallery premises in 2011, she continued trading at art fairs and online, and organised exhibitions at Highgate’s Contemporary Gallery, always a highly popular and knowledgeable figure.
Reflecting on her career of more than forty years in the arts, she once stated, 'I believed that as a gallery owner one has a role towards the public. My contribution, to my mind, was to impart my knowledge [...] I learned how to look at and how to select pictures that would survive the test of time, [or] in other words, would stay interesting for years to come. This has not been a matter of taste, but of educating one’s eyes, a wonderful thing to share with the people who visited the Boundary Gallery over 25 years' (Boundary Gallery website). Elsewhere, she attributed her ‘unforgettable experience in Hungary in 1956’ as the reason she ‘tended to gravitate towards artists who were also immigrants and [Eva] Frankfurther is a prime example of that' ('When Art is Not Where the Home Is'). Always generous with her knowledge, she contributed to many exhibition catalogues, also loaning works for exhibition and donating others to museum collections including the Ben Uri Collection and the British Museum. Agi Katz died on 12 August 2021 after a long battle with cancer and is survived by her husband and three children.
Related books
- Gerald Isaaman, When Art is Not Where the Home Is, Camden New Journal (25 May 2017)
- Agi Katz, Dorothy Mead, 1928-1975: Retrospective Exhibition (London: Boundary Gallery, 2005)
- Agi Katz, Jacob Epstein 1880-1959: Bronze Sculptures, Les Fleurs du Mal Drawings and Other Works on Paper (London: Boundary Gallery, 2002)
- Agi Katz, June Redfern: Recent Paintings (London: Boundary Gallery, 1999)
- Agi Katz, Sylvia Melland (1906-1993): A Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings and Graphic Works (London: Boundary Gallery, 1997)
- Agi Katz, Suzanne Perlman: Arcadia in London (London: Boundary Gallery, 1997)
- Agi Katz, Sonia Lawson: Talking to Strangers: Paintings and Works on Paper (London: Boundary Gallery, 1995)
- Agi Katz, Morris Kestelman at 90: The Early Works 1930-1960 (London: Boundary Gallery, 1995)
- Agi Katz, Ghisha Koenig 1921-1993: Memorial Exhibition (London: Boundary Gallery, 1994)
- Agi Katz, Phillippa Clayden (London: Boundary Gallery, 1993)
- Agi Katz, Albert Louden: Works on Paper (London: Boundary Gallery, 1990)
- Agi Katz, Jacob Epstein, 1880-1959: 'In praise of humanity': Sculpture, Drawings, Watercolours (London: Boundary Gallery, 1989)
- Agi Katz, Henryk Gotlib 1890-1966: A European Master (London: Boundary Gallery, 1988)
- Agi Katz, Jacob Epstein: Drawings and Illustrations (London: Boundary Gallery, 1987)
- Agi Katz, John Lessore: Working Drawings (London: Manor House Society at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism, 1986)
- Agi Katz ed., Josef Herman: "Memory of memories" - The Glasgow Drawings 1940-43, (Glasgow: Third Eye Centre,1985)
- Agi Katz, Josef Herman's Memory of Memories, The Jewish Quarterly, Vol. 32, Issue No. 1 (1985)
- Agi Katz, Mark Gertler: The Early and the Late Years (London: Ben Uri Art Gallery, 1982)
Related organisations
- Ben Uri Gallery (curator)
- Boundary Gallery (founder and curator)
- Camden Arts Centre (student)
- Chelsea School of Art (student)
- Contemporary Gallery, Highgate (curator)
- Lauderdale House (manager)
- LSE (student)
Related web links
- Agi Katz, Josef Herman's Memory of Memories, The Jewish Quarterly, Vol. 32, Issue No. 1, 1985
- Boundary Gallery website
- 'When Art is Not Where the Home Is', Camden New Journal
Selected exhibitions
- Dorothy Mead, 1928-1975: Retrospective Exhibition, Boundary Gallery (2005)
- Jacob Epstein 1880-1959: Bronze sculptures, Les Fleurs du Mal Drawings and Other Works on Paper, Boundary Gallery (2002)
- June Redfern: Recent Paintings, Boundary Gallery (1999)
- Sylvia Melland (1906-1993) : a retrospective exhibition : paintings and graphic works, Boundary Gallery (1997)
- Suzanne Perlman: Arcadia in London, Boundary Gallery (1997)
- Sonia Lawson: Talking to Strangers: Paintings and Works on Paper, Boundary Gallery (1995)
- Morris Kestelman at 90: The Early Works 1930-1960, Boundary Gallery 1995)
- Ghisha Koenig 1921-1993: Memorial Exhibition, Boundary Gallery (1994)
- Phillippa Clayden, Boundary Gallery (1993)
- Albert Louden: Works on Paper, Boundary Gallery (1990)
- Jacob Epstein, 1880-1959 : 'In praise of humanity': Sculpture, Drawings, Watercolours, Boundary Gallery (1989)
- Henryk Gotlib 1890-1966: A European Master, Boundary Gallery (1988)
- John Lessore: Working Drawings (London: Manor House Society at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism, 1986)
- Jacob Epstein: Drawings and Illustrations, Boundary Gallery (1987)
- John Lessore: Working Drawings, Manor House Society at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism (1986)
- Josef Herman: 'Memory of memories' - The Glasgow Drawings 1940-43, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow (1985)
- Four Naïve Painters at the Ben Uri: Hessing, Maurer, Holzhandler, Wilson, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1985)
- David Bomberg in the Holy Land, 1923-27, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1984)
- Jacob Kramer: Reassessed, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1984)
- Jack Bilbo, Lottie Reizenstein, Henry Sanders Memorial Exhibition, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1983)
- Mark Gertler: The Early and the Late Years, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1982)
- David Bomberg and Family, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1981)
- Epstein: Centenary Exhibition- Bronzes, Drawings and Watercolours, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1980)
