Artist Database

George (Jerzy Wladyslaw) Jaholkowski was born in Baku, Russia (now in Azerbaijan) in 1914. He grew up in Poland and studied Fine Art and Architecture at the University of Poland and later also at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

He served with distinction in the Polish and British armies and the Polish Underground during WWII, and after being demobbed, worked in London as a graphic designer, draughtsman and sculptor. In the aftermath of the war, wood, stone and bronze were difficult for a sculptor to obtain so Jaholkowski developed techniques of sculpting in sheet metal. After a commission for the South African Tourist Bureau in London, the artist and his wife Virginia, a concert pianist, immigrated to South Africa in 1955 and settled in Cape Town. He undertook further studies under Lippy Lipshitz and Maurice van Essche at the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, in the late 1950s.

His first exhibition at the South African Association of Arts Gallery in Cape Town in 1959 was opened by Irma Stern, who was an admirer. She bought three of the works on show.

Jaholkowski continued to work in sheet metal, usually copper which was cut, bent, beaten and welded or brazed before being treated with acid to produce green, black and bronze patinas. He executed many corporate commissions including for Santam, the Chamber of Mines and the Clicks Group, and his work is represented in the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, and the Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg.