Thalma: An Artist’s Life (edited by Richard Hallam and Sylvie Venet-Tupy) is a retrospective study of the life and work of Israeli-born animator, Thalma Goldman-Cohen who won awards for her films in the 1970s and 80s but has not received sufficient attention as an artist in her own right. The main text for the book is based on three interviews—with her former lecturer at St Martin’s School of Art and with two collaborators on her films. Her work was controversial and attracted a large amount of media comment, included an appearance on the television arts programme Arena, details of which are reproduced in the book. Thalma’s speciality is the finely-drawn line and the book is amply illustrated with images of cels from her films and with drawings of her friends and the people she meets in her local area of Kilburn, North West London. These drawings include an impressive series of images in colour of gamblers in betting shops, drawn from life on betting slips. The book is introduced in a foreword by Annabel Jankel, film director and co-creator of the pioneering cyber-character Max Headroom.
The book is co-edited with Sylvie Venet-Tupy who is one of Thalma’s friends. It was in the Soho studio of Peter Tupy that Thalma made her animation films.
