Joan H. Banov, Rockstar Artist, Holocaust Survivor, Inventor of Lyrical Expressionism / Impressionistic Oil Painting

At the age of four, Joan H. Banov (1921-2022) viewed the "Praying Hands" by Albrecht Durer and she immediately knew her life would be devoted to art.

In the midst of her Bauhaus training, where she was a protégé of Hermann Lismann, she was forced to flee her native homeland of Germany on one of the last Kinder transports, in 1939.

Joan emigrated first to England, where as a teenager, she was forced to work as an unpaid maid, starting the coal furnace at 4:30 a.m. daily for several years. She eventually made her way to the United States.

Determined to continue her passion for painting, she settled in New York with her husband, journalist Abel Banov (1915-1997) and their daughter, Beverly. Joan consciously chose, rather than depicting the atrocities and ugliness of the war, to dedicate her considerable gifts to celebrating the beauty of natural settings, and the joy she found in life.

Through her plein air and studio oil paintings, pastels and etchings, Joan forged an impressive legacy of one woman art shows in such prestigious locations as Madison Ave, N.Y. City, in the 1960's at the Contemporary Arts Gallery, under the guidance of the infamous Miss Emily Francis.

A longtime member of the National Association of Women Artists, featured in Who's Who of American Women in the 60's & 70's, she won numerous prizes, and gave demonstrations of her lyrical expressionism techniques at the National Armory Show in N.Y. City.

Joan H. Banov also had a loyal group of devoted students whose progress she revelled in witnessing.

Her work is in numerous private collections nationally, and one of her oils has been acquired by the U.S. Embassy in Japan.