Jan and Cora Gordon

The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer of Saturday 5th February 1949 carried the following story: " Mrs. Cora Gordon, the artist and author, will open an exhibition of recent paintings Mr. Charles Murray , at the Art Gallery, Batley.  It is appropriate that this one-man show should be held Yorkshire; for Mr. Murray, though an Aberdonian by birth, worked for years in Leeds and has been a consistent contributor to Yorkshire exhibitions. Indeed, we unblushingly claim him as a Yorkshire artist, though Aberdeen may have other views.  His reputation is now national. Twice In the past few years has had successful one-man shows in London, and work by him has been included in an exhibition sent abroad by the British Council. Those unfamiliar with the idioms of modern art may find the present exhibition startling at first sight. There is more than a hint of Picasso in some of these works; and the very mention of Picasso's name seems sufficient to start a controversy. But the open-mi...

The Northern Whig, Saturday 23 July 1932, carried a review of Jan and Cora Gordon's "Three Lands on Three Wheels," focusing on the account of their visit to the Aran Islands of County Galway. Here it is: Three Lands on Three Wheels. Jan and Cora Gordon. Harrap. 12s 6d net.  Jan and Cora Gordon have travelled in many countries, and the chronicles of their wanderings invariably make good reading. "Three Lands on Three Wheels" is the entertaining record of a pilgrimage on a motor cycle and side car combination through parts of France, England, and Ireland. The Gordons are observant tourists; "chiels who take notes" of many quaint incidents, which people less vigilant and interested in the world about them would pass by unnoticed. Jan, the narrator of their journeyings, has an engaging sense of humour and a very tolerant outlook on humanity. Here we have no hint of the "superior person" attitude which fully accounts for the un-popularity of a cer...

I came across an interesting account of Cora Gordon's participation at an exhibition in the Norman Castle at Tamworth, Staffordshire. The Tamworth Herald of Saturday 16th July 1949 had the following to say: " Under the general title "Paintings by British Women," the Arts Council of Great Britain has on tour a selection of pictures from the recent exhibition held by the Women's International Art Club and it is in recognition of Tamworth's place as a centre of art interest that this collection is to be received on loan here and will be on view in the Castle Museum art gallery for a fortnight commencing on Sunday. The pictures, originally shown in the R.B.A. Galleries, London, were chosen in consultation with the chairman of the Women's International Art Club (Mrs. Beryl Sinclair), and the exhibition, we are told, provides a welcome opportunity of showing the public in provincial centres the work of contemporary women painters. Miss Cora Gordon is to open th...