Marianne Grant
Marianne Grant
The artist Marianne Grant (1921 – 2007) was a survivor of the Holocaust. She survived the occupation of Czechoslovakia, forced labour and imprisonment in the concentration camps while all the time drawing what she saw around her whenever she could get art materials. Her artwork and memorabilia are a unique record of the Holocaust.
Marianne was born in Prague in 1921. She came to live in Glasgow in 1951 and lived for many years in Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire, which has the largest Jewish community in Scotland. Sadly, Marianne died on 11th December 2007 aged 85.
In 2002, Glasgow Museums displayed Marianne’s artwork, filmed an interview with her, and published a book about her story and art. In 2003, the Scottish Executive funded an education pack based on Marianne’s experiences and gave a copy to every Scottish secondary school.
Glasgow Museums has purchased the Marianne Grant Holocaust artworks collection with grant funding support from The Heritage Lottery Fund, The National Art Collections Fund and The National Fund for Acquisitions.
References
Grant, Marianne. (2002). I Knew I Was Painting for My Life: The Holocaust artworks of Marianne Grant. Glasgow: Glasgow City Council (Museums).
This is a book of Marianne Grant’s artworks, from her arrival at the Theresienstadt ghetto to her journey to Sweden in 1945 after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. The title refers to those drawings Marianne was forced to do for Dr Mengele while she was imprisoned in Auschwitz. This publication was produced to coincide with an exhibition of Marianne Grant’s work at the People’s Palace Museum in Glasgow in 2002.