Newspapers / The Charlotte Jewish news. / Feb. 1, 1984, edition 1 / Page 11
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New Art Museiim Opens At Yad Vashem ^INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN^' by Karel Fleischmann by Ralph Lister This is definitely art for art’s sake. No isms, no styles or schools. No well-known names. Often the artists risked their lives by recording the sur roundings. If discovered, the price was death, but they were driven to draw, to paint to sculpt, so that the world would know. Yad Vashem, Israel’s exten sive memorial to the Holocaust on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, has recently opened an art museum to ex hibit works produced by in mates of the concentration camps during World War II. Yad Vashem - “a place and a name...an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off”, Isaiah 56:5 - is visited by vir tually every tourist to Israel. The impressive layout of the memorial complex and the per manent exhibit leave a lasting impression. The new art museum adds a poignant dimension. It converts the documentary and photographic evidence of the Holocaust into a stunning series of personal artistic testimony which leaves the visitor stunned and drained. At Theresienstadt, the Nazis “model" ghetto, Jewish ar tists were compelled to pro duce representations of the camps for propaganda pur poses. This gave the artists ac cess to paper and drawing in struments with which to pro duce their own testimony. “I still hear voices” remembers a painter who survived. “You wiU live. Paint us, so at least we’ll live on paper.” Survival on paper was, for most of the artist-inmates, the only life granted them. For us, a glimpse into these years, reveals dormitories crowded with bunks, inmates in their striped uniforms; exhausted, emaciated. Yet, in spite of the despair and horrcM*, here and there, a note of humor. In addition to There sienstadt, sections of the museum are devoted to art produced by inmates of Si S Impmrlal printing products | Specialists In Raised Printing j Stationery — Business Cards | Wedding — Bar Mitzvah Invitations | Business & Social Announcements 4731 Swd»n Road . Chartotf. NO. 28210 Stumrt Coisc (704)SB4-1198 . Pfwld«nt Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, the Warsaw, Lodz and Vilna Ghettoes, as well as dozens of smaller concentra tion and internment camps. Since Yad Vashem was founded 30 years ago, the documents, objects, relics and bequests it has collected in clude over two thousand works of art, 300 of which are exhibited in the new museum. Curator Irit Salmon-Livne points out that this collection is without precedent consider ing the death sentence threatening the artists if discovered. After the war, some of the works were recovered by the artists themselves returning to the camps, or by others who by chance found work hidden in cans, behind walls, under floors. Some art e^pears on envelope backs, tiny scraps of paper - some on real canvas. Many of the artists who sur vived stopped creating after the war. Many who did not survive displayed exceptional talent, and would no doubt have found their niche as ar tists after the war. A special area of the museum is devoted to art done by children in the camps. After the pervasive greyness of the adult works, here is an explosion of color; an op timistic world as only children could conceive it. This section of the museum is to many, the most poignant. A searing memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. Assistant curator liana Guri reports that most visitors to Yad Vashem find the art museum as impressive as the documentary exhibition. The museum has published a catalogue in Hebrew, English, French and German. The museum is open weekdays from 9 to 5, Friday from 9 to 1 and closed on Saturdays. Yad Vashem is easily reached by taxi or bus, ten minutes from downtown Jerusalem and is included in all inclusive tours to Israel. Temple Israel AJE Program Ms. Mary Alice Dixon Hin son wiU speak on “Art and Tradition” at Temple Israel on Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. Ms. Hinson is a faculty member of UNCC’s Dept, of Architec ture. This adult education pro gram is open to the commun ity at no charge. Like its intellectual history, the art and architecture of the post-medieval West have been shaped by the romantic equa tion of creativity with inven tion. The cult of the new is so striking an aspect of Western culture that the continuous re jection of precedent in itself constitutes the normative tradition. The literary critic Octavio Paz uses the term “the tradition of discontinui ty” to describe the paradox of this position. So deeply en trenched is this value struc ture that we often tend to ac cept as natural and self- evident two rather curious consequences of it. These are, first, the devalua tion of the imitation, and se cond, the marginality of the artist. Each of these will be surveyed by the speaker and then turn to an alternative tradition which our ethnocen tric emphasis on the new had made conceptually unattrac tive and therefore largely in visible to Western eyes. That tradition not only does not share the Western premise of art as invention but is predicated on its inverse. That tradition is the Chinese! It has held, for some two thousand years, that in art, as in life, im itation is more meritorious than creation. Page 11-THE NEWS-February, 1984 RIDE THE PURIM EXPRESS Destination: Pease Auditorium CPCC, Charlotte, NC Arrival Day: Sunday, March 11 Arrival Time: 1:00 P.M. • Sing along Jewish country music with **David Lazerson and his “COUNTRY SHTICK” • Watch awesome magic tricks • Hear the fzimous story “A Ton Of Ice Cream” as told by E.T. Erps, “the storyteller with a thou sand voices” • Eat delicious sandwiches, REAL POTATO KNISHES, and cold refreshing soda. • Pick the winning ticket for a super fabulous door prize. • Fresli bal&ed hamantaschen and shallach monos will be given out. KIDS, BRING YOUR PARENTS Sponsored by Lubavitch of N.C. Admission: .50 - Child 1:00 - Adult Lunch - 1:00 For More Information Call: 366-3984 Avodah Dance Ensemble A dynamic dance company devoted to presentations of Jewish culture, wor ship and history will participate in Temple Beth El's Sabbath Service. 8:00 Friday evening, March 2,1984 in the sanctuary followed by refreshments in the Fellowship Hall then Avodah again, on the stage (fi^e £r open to the public) Dancers have Martha Graham, Julliard and Rabbinic trainingl Plan to share in this exciting religious experience March 2. "Angsis" are needed and welcome, (tax-deductible) Call Anne Yudell, 366-8280 to help now! This is a JWB presentation.
Feb. 1, 1984, edition 1
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