Annely Juda

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.