FINE ARTS I
`iI n
1974, the picture
and the sofa cost about
$1,500 each.
What do you think
they're worth today?"
— Albert Scaglione, Park West Gallery
Dutch Painter's Work
At Yad Vashem Museum
CATHRINE GERSON
Special to The Jewish News
A
"The Chagall lithograph is now worth
$54,000. The sofa? Perhaps a few hundred
dollars. Of course, not every work of art will
appreciate so dramatically. That's why so many
people come to us. Just as an interior designer
helps you put together the right enviroment, we
help you build an art collection. And it dosen't
have to be expensive. You could easily collect
an appreciable work of art for under
$1,000 See for yourself. Visit the gallery. It's
not at all intimidating. In fact, its quite
comfortable Like your favorite sofa."
PARK WEST
G.A.L.L.E.R.Y
Dedicated to the appreciation of art.
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29469 Northwestern • Southfield, Michigan 48034 • (313)354-2343 • Outside Michigan 1-800-521-9654
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FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1990
Call The Jewish News
354-6060
rt is one of the most
unlikely legacies left
over from the Nazi
concentration camps and
death factories that dotted
Europe a half century ago.
Yet the Yad Vashem Art
Museum, which opened in
Jerusalem eight years ago,
contains some 3,000 pain-
tings and drawings done in
the camps by more than 90
Jewish artists, only a hand-
ful of whom survived.
The art works, if not the
artists, survived because
they were concealed or
smuggled out of the camps.
They attest to the Holocaust
in terms more powerful than
words. To see them is also to
see the reply of the Jews to
suffering.
A pencil drawing done in
1943 in the Lodz ghetto by
Amos Szwarc shows Jews
burying their dead in the
ghetto cemetery. The lightly
penciled drawing of a
screaming woman, done by
Halina Olumucki in the
Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, is
called "Don't Shoot My
Mother."
One of the artists who died
in Auschwitz was the Dutch
painter Leo Kok, whose
work is now being shown for
the first time in Israel.
Kok, only 22 when he died,
was born in Belgium and
like many other Belgian
Jews, fled to Holland at the
outbreak of the war.
In 1942, he was interned in
the Dutch concentration
camp Westerbork, from
where trains transported
Jews weekly to There-
sienstadt, the Nazis' model
village show-camp, which
was for most inmates only a
way station to Auschwitz.
Although Westerbork
served only as a transit
camp, the interns were
allowed to mount shows,
mainly for the amusement of
German officers serving in
the area.
Before he was put on a
train, Kok was made a
builder of stage sets, which
allowed him to steal some
moments to paint portraits
of his friends and scenes
from the camp. His pain-
tings, done on small scraps
of paper, show the develop-
ment of the young artist
from simple sketches to
mature portraits in charcoal,
French coal and color pen-
cils. His paintings were
smuggled out of Westerbork
by a Dutch military
policeman, who gave them
after the war to Kok's
widow, Kitty. She was more
fortunate than her husband
in that she was not immedi-
ately sent on to Auschwitz,
but stayed in Theresienstadt
where she was liberated at
the end of the war.
The exhibition of Leo
Kok's paintings at the Yad
Vashem Museum was
prepared by Jaap Nystadt,
Kitty's son by her second
marriage. Although Kok's
works have previously been
exhibited in Holland, Kitty
said she always wanted
them to be shown in Israel.
"It is not the same thing at
all," she said. "To see Leo's
painting here in Jerusalem
gives me . . . an incredible
feeling."
Nystadt included written
texts between the paintings
on the walls. They are ex-
cerpts from the diary of
Philip Mechanius, a Dutch
journalist interned at
Westerbork. One of the most
impressive is "Ergens in
Nederland," which means
"Somewhere in the Nether-
lands," a letter written by
Mechanius and illustrated
by Kok describing the life of
the Jews in Westerbork.
The Kok exhibition is the
first in a series of temporary
exhibits planned by the Yad
Vashem Art Museum to
show the works of Jewish ar-
tists who managed to con-
tinue painting during the
Holocaust.
❑
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LOCAL NEWS
Aish HaTorah
Sets Events
Aish Halbrah/Aleynu will
publish an international
cookbook of Jewish cooking.
There will be sections on in-
ternational cooking, gourmet
cooking, and a children's sec-
tion, along with the basic
meat, poultry, fish, salads,
deserts, etc. To contribute
recipes, call the Aish HarIbrah
office.
Aish Haabrah/Aleynu will
sponsor an arts and crafts fair
10 a.m.-8 p.m. Aug. 19 at the
Village Commons Plaza shop-
ping center in downtown Far-
mington. To participate call
the Aish HaTorah office,
948-6900, by July 26.