Cecile Elstein biography

Cecile Elstein MA, MAFA. Sculptor, Printmaker and Environmental Artist

1938 - 2025


1938 - Cecile Hoberman born in Cape Town, South Africa

1943 - her brother Gerald Hoberman was born. Gerald became an eminent photographer and author. They had a life long close influential friendship until his death.

1957 - Married Max Elstein. Max gave Gerald his first camera.

1959 - ongoing Commissions for portrait bronzes

1961 - Immigrated to the UK to avoid the South African Apartheid regime

1965-69 - Studied ceramics with Catherine Yarrow in London. Lifelong friendship with Catherine Yarrow, the Surrealist artist until Catherine’s death in 1990.

1970-77 - lived in Southampton

1975-77 - Sculpture and Printmaking, West Surrey College of Art

1975 - Began long lasting friendship with artist tutor - Ian Walters, sculptor associated with several prominent Nelson Mandela sculptures, including the one at the Southbank Centre and Parliament Square in London

1977-2025 lived in Manchester

1979-80 ‘The Sisyphus Suite’, a series of 8 screen prints based on ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ by Albert Camus.

1979-2019 created her screen print editions with the master craftsman printer, artist and friend - Kip Gresham

1983-84 - Exhibitions include Accepted Royal Academy in 1985, Society of Portrait Sculptors, International Print
Biennale Cadeque, Spain

1981 - ‘Everlasting Light’ ( Nir Tamid ) sculpture designed and made for Menorah Synagogue, Manchester, commissioned by the cookery writer and husband Evelyn Rose and Meyer Rose.

1984 - ‘Morning Meeting’, ‘Noon Meeting’ and ‘Evening Meeting’ screenprints

1986 - ‘Noon Meeting’ Sericol Colour Prize, Bradford Print Biennale

1991 - Exhibition at Whitworth Art Gallery ‘A Printmakers Partnership - Cecile Elstein and Kip Gresham

1996 - ‘Empathy in Design Education’, Manchester Metropolitan University, MA - dissertation, ‘Art as Environment’

1996-1998, ‘Together with Tangents’, Wimpole Hall Gardens, Cambridgeshire, site-specific installation.

1998-2003 ‘Tangents, a mindscape in a Landscape’ , DVD video - collaboration with artist filmmaker Maureen Kendal

2001-19 ’Paul’s People’ - 9 portrait drawings, pastel and charcoal, including a figure drawing of Sita Williams, a friend and tv/ film producer.

2001-20 Initiated and co-facilitator of Didsbury Drawing with the textile artist Margaret Crowther. Artists’ group for life drawing, regular weekly sessions using a philosophical principle of non-interference.

2005 - Commission for Bronze portrait ‘Michael Kennedy CBE 1926 - 2014 - Writer and Music Critic Fellow and Companion of the RNCM’, can be viewed in the Upper Concourse of the RNCM, Manchester

2008 - ‘Yellow Violet’ - screen prints

2010 - Sundial for Marie Louise Gardens, Didsbury, Manchester in collaboration with Tam Giles with cooperation of Leisure services and children of Moor Allerton School, Didsbury

2011 - ‘Place of Light and Air’ and ‘Of Being’ screen prints

2018 - 2025 Elstein worked with Maureen Kendal and the Cecile Elstein Studio Team, Dreamstudio.io and associates, to collate and prepare artworks for retrospective, oeuvre, catalogue raisonné, monograph.

2019 - Screenprints ‘Giving and Receiving’.

2023 - Sisyphus Suite, exhibition at Salford University Art Gallery. Review by Alistair Small.

2025 - January, participated in a Dreamstudio design jam to plan her retrospective, associated symposium and programme of outreach workshops.

2nd March 2025, Elstein died from a sudden heart attack. Leaving her beloved husband Professor Max Elstein, her daughter and son-in-law, three grandchildren, three step grandchildren six great-grandchildren.

9th March 2025, Funeral at Mill Lane cemetery, Cheadle, Stockport, Greater Manchester, was attended by well over 200 representing family, friends, artists and local communities.