Annely Juda built up on her own judgment and with an exceptional eye, a
remarkable art constituency in central London, in Tottenham Mews.
In due course she moved to superb, top lit galleries in Dering St. Her
special field was non-objective art, a term which she preferred as
being less amorphous than ‘abstract art’. Her much remembered shows
were of the highest curatorial standards. She was particularly
successful in the field of Russian non-objective art, as well as in the
related Dutch de Stijl school. Later, she established strong and
important links with Japan. Surprisingly, she later took on David
Hockney, but the mutual chemistry had a sound basis later proved, to be
well-founded.
Annely Juda was the epitome of the independent-minded female, She had
worked as a WVS driver in wartime London, which was typical. With her
husband David Juda she found time to have two girls and a boy: this
independent spiritedness probably meant that her doubling up with the
Rowan Gallery’s Alec Gregory-Hood was to be short-lived: the two
characters were too irreconcilable, however individually talented
they were. Annely Juda had a brilliant eye for a painting, and could
assess authenticity with great skill and perception: what she judged to
be authentic was always vindicated, a vital skill in the period when
Russian art was emerging from the fog. She retained long-term relations
with her chosen artists, when other gallery owners might have culled
them prematurely. Annely Juda was in for the long course, and leaves an
impeccable record for posterity and for art history. Herself, she
remained fit and even at 90 continued to ski. Her CBE was received from
the Queen in 1998, with special pleasure.
