Josephine Lorraine Malach (March 23, 1933 – March 3, 2003) was a Canadian

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

, ceramic muralist and painter.

Personal history

She was born at

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 C ...

in 1933, the only child of Stan and Beth Malach. She was educated at Sacred Heart Academy and the School of Art, both in Regina. At the urging of her instructors at the School of Art she took further study in Philadelphia at

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pen ...

and

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

. She studied in Europe on several Study Tour Awards.

Body of work

Lorraine Malach was known as "An eminent Canadian Artist of immeasurable talent" Her works, include ceramic panels, paintings, and murals that are displayed in many churches, schools, public buildings and are held in private collections including in the Vatican. She carefully planned and researched each commission, often requiring a number of years work. She worked over two years on the ceramic mural created for the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller. Malach took her vocation seriously and had a work ethic that enabled her to create many lasting works. "...she made art everyday of her life, and hardly anyone else did. She was constantly seeking to say something and do something."

''The Story of Life''

Her final and one of her most remarkable works is ''The Story of Life''. It is a

mural created for the

Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (RTMP, and often referred to as the Royal Tyrrell Museum) is a palaeontology museum and research facility in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. The museum was named in honour of Joseph Burr Tyrrell, and is situ ...

Drumheller Drumheller is a town on the Red Deer River in the badlands of Central Alberta, east-central Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Calgary and south of Stettler, Alberta, Stettler. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often ref ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. The mural consists of ten panels, each four feet wide and eight feet high; ten tons of clay were used. It depicts life forms from the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

to the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

, as told by human-based figures. Reprinted from ''Newsletter of the Royal Tyrrell Museum'', Issue Two, Winter 2003.

Death

Lorraine Malach died on March 3, 2003, at Drumheller, Alberta, several weeks before her 70th birthday and before the completion of the work. Her friends and colleagues undertook to complete the work. The two remaining pieces were fired in a kiln and the mural was completed by Janet Grabner.

Personal history

Body of work

''The Story of Life''

Death

See also

References

Further reading

External links