Slawa Duldig
[3] She was also the mother of Eva de Jong-Duldig, a champion Australian tennis player who played in Wimbledon, the French Championships, the Australian Open, and at the Maccabiah Games in Israel where she won two gold medals, and is founder of the present-day Duldig Studio, an artists' house museum in Melbourne, Australia.
[2] The three Horowitz children were to follow creative pursuits, with Slawa becoming an artist and designer, her sister Aurelie ('Rella') an actress, and brother Marek, a lawyer who also wrote poetry and composed music.
[2] From 1922 to 1925, Slawa studied with the Viennese sculptor, Anton Hanak, an affiliate of the late nineteenth-century Vienna Secession artistic movement and friend of the founder, Gustav Klimt.
[1] In 1929, she graduated from the Akademie der Bildenen Künste Wien (Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna), as the student of Professor Hans Bitterlich, a sculptor.
[2] In 1928, following a wet-weather visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Slawa conceived the idea for a manageable, handbag-sized folding umbrella.
[2] She reflected on the event in later life, "'It happened [that] one May morning, a cold and rainy day, I armed myself with a big umbrella and muttered to myself, 'Why on earth must I carry this utterly clumsy thing?
'"[2] Slawa sought to remedy the problem of cumbersome umbrellas with much ingenuity and the support of her parents, sister Rella and close friend Karl Duldig.
[8] 'Flirt' featured at the 1931 Vienna Spring Fair; '"…the sculptress Slawa Horowitz has invented a magic umbrella that can be folded so small it can fit in a handbag…"' enthused a reporter of the Neuigkeits Welt Blatt (New World Paper).
[2] Slawa and Karl Duldig resided in an apartment at 2 Enzingergasse, Door 14, Vienna, which they decorated in the style of the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops).
'[2] In 1938, following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany (the Anschluss), a series of significant human rights violations occurred in Vienna.
These included attacks on Jewish homes and businesses, deportations of Jews to Dachau concentration camp, the burning of all Viennese synagogues and prayer houses, and the arrests of 6,547 people.
[9] As Jewish people concerned by the potential increasing risk of harm, Slawa and Karl Duldig, with their infant child Eva, departed Vienna for Switzerland.
Slawa and Eva travelled to Switzerland on temporary visas instigated by Karl and organised by Swiss immigration official Ernest Speck.
[2] In 1945, Slawa attained registration as a teacher of Art and German and was employed by Korowa Church of England Girls Grammar School.
Their metropolitan Melbourne retail outlets included The Primrose Pottery Shop (which stocked works by prominent Australian artists such as Arthur Boyd),[1] Light and Shade (in the Royal Arcade), and Chez Nous (in Howey Place).
Karl's original studio, with kiln, tools, and work across all periods has been kept as it was left by the artist, and in the adjoining garden the bronze and terracotta sculptures also remain in situ.
She also played at Wimbledon in 1962 and 1963 for the Netherlands, and competed in the Australian Open, French Championships, Fed Cup, and in the Maccabiah Games in Israel where she won two gold medals.
[13][14] Eva later wrote a memoir, Driftwood: Escape and Survival through Art (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing and Arcadia, 2017) about her family's experiences.
"[22] The Age wrote: "Director Gary Abrahams keeps the story's emotional core vivid and convincing and Anthony Barnhill's score suits the material well.
Prototypes of the 'Flirt' umbrella, as created by Slawa, are held in the collections of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney and the Duldig Studio.
