Elizabeth Shaw (artist)


Elizabeth Shaw was an Irish artist, illustrator and children's book author, active in Germany.

Life and work

Elizabeth Shaw was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1920. In 1933, she moved to England with her family. From 1938 to 1940, she studied under Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. In 1940, she contributed to the war effort by working as a mechanic until 1944, when she married Swiss-born sculptor and painter René Graetz. In 1946, they moved to Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany.
In Berlin, she first worked for the satirical journal, Ulenspiegel. After it folded, she worked for the satirical magazine Eulenspiegel. In 1950, she began to also draw caricatures for Neues Deutschland. In 1959, she created lithographic portraits of 43 members of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. She illustrated stories by Bertolt Brecht and wrote and illustrated her own children's books. She also illustrated books by James Krüss, Gerhard Holtz-Baumert, Heinz Kahlau and Rainer Kirsch. Shaw also drew a monthly comic titled Sonntagmorgen. Shaw died 1992 in Berlin-Pankow.

Awards and honours

Shaw received a number of awards for her work, including the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic, the Hans Baltzer Prize, the Leipzig Gutenberg Prize and the Käthe Kollwitz Prize from the Akademie der Künste Berlin.
A primary school in Berlin-Pankow is named after Shaw.

Selected works

;Children's booksDer kleine Angsthase, Berlin Gittis Tomatenpflanze, Berlin Die Schildkröte hat Geburtstag, Berlin Wie Putzi einen Pokal gewann, Berlin Bella Belchaud und ihre Papageien, Berlin Bettina bummelt, Berlin Zilli, Billi und Willi, Berlin Das Bärenhaus, Berlin Als Robert verschwand, translated by Erika Schroder, Berlin Guten Appetit!, Berlin Die Schöne und das Ungeheuer, Berlin Der scheue Schneck, Berlin The Little Black Sheep/ The Little Black Sheep of Connemara, O'Brien Press, Dublin /Die fleißige Familie, Berlin Wildschwein Walter, Berlin David und die Kühe, Berlin Das einsame Zicklein, tabu, Munich Miezekatz und Huckelpuckel, LeiV, Leipzig Die Landmaus und die Stadtmaus, Berlin
;Book illustrations
;AnthologiesDas kleine Shaw-Buch, Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin Spiegelbilder, Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin
  • Patrick Graetz : Das dicke Elizabeth-Shaw-Buch für die ganze Familie, Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin
;AutobiographiesEine Feder am Meeresstrand: Urlaubsskizzen aus 4 Badeorten, Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin Irish Berlin, translated by Wolfgang de Bruyn. Aufbau, Berlin