Jasia Reichardt was born to Maryla and Sewek Chaykin in Warsaw, Poland, in 1933. Her mother was an illustrator and pianist and her father an architect and engineer. An assimilated middle classJewish family, they were overwhelmed by the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and were corralled with the capital's Jewish population in the Warsaw Ghetto. Jasia survived there for a while with her mother and grandmother who endeavoured to shield her from the unfolding horror. In 1942 she was smuggled out of there but lost her beloved parents in the Holocaust. She was subsequently hidden in war-torn Poland under an assumed identity by a series of Poles, including in a convent, until she was able to join relatives in London in 1946. In England she had to learn the language and attended Dartington Hall school. She went on to train at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Career
In the 1950s she was assistant editor of Art News and Review, a weekly arts magazine. Throughout its existence, Reichardt curated and wrote exhibition notes for the Grabowski Gallery in Chelsea which promoted young artists between 1959 and 1975. From 1963 to 1971 she was assistant director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. In 1968 she curated the Fluorescent Chrysanthemum, a presentation of contemporary experimental Japanese art. That same year she curated the ground-breaking Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition, and was editor of Cybernetic serendipity: the computer and the arts, a special edition of Studio International magazine, which was published at the same time. She also commissioned work from designers such as John Wood, who produced his 'Tune Doodler' - mass-produced electronic sculpture. From 1974 to 1976 Reichardt was a director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Between 1989 and 1998 she was director of Artec biennale in Japan. In 1998 she curated Electronically Yours. an exposition of electronic portraiture at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. Beside her collaborations with artists and continuous focus on the intersection of the arts and science, since 1990, with Nick Wadley, until his death in 2017, she has taught at the Architectural Association and other colleges. She has organised and catalogued into eight volumes her aunt's Themerson Archive and that of her husband, Stefan Themerson.
Personal life
Jasia Reichardt was married firstly to Tony Richards and secondly, to art critic, illustrator and educationalist, Nick Wadley.
