An early 1960s oil painting, titled Gorky’s Garden.

continued from page 37

When Lichtman won his Fullbright
scholarship, he decided to go to
Brussels — because he was born in
Paris, he wasn’t allowed to go there.
“I became involved in the Living
Theatre, which was touring through
Europe in the mid-’60s, like nomads,”
he says. “I traveled with them and took
photos of their performances. It was
an insane time. I met Timothy Leary
then, when he was a young psycholo-
gist.”
Lichtman returned to New York
in 1965, during the Vietnam War.
He was having trouble painting and
got involved in a film group making
newsreel documentary films that did
work with the Black Panthers, which
brought him to Detroit during the
riots.
Eventually, Lichtman married his
wife, Cathy, had children, and worked
in the auto industry until they both
went back to school. He earned a Ph.D.
from Wayne State in instructional
technology — “it took me eight years”
— then worked in nursing education
at Beaumont. But he always kept a stu-
dio and he always continued to paint.
“I have paintings dating back from
1962,” Lichtman says. “I was involved
in Surrealism, in the Belgian School —
and there’s always the mix of being a
survivor.
“But I never did Holocaust art. I was
more influenced by schools. It’s like
these two different personalities — I’m
interested in balance, harmony, rela-
tionships. It’s very much about reason;
it’s not expressionistic. It’s geometry,
but it’s soft geometry,” he says.
“I’ve always worked in the abstract
tradition, beginning with Expressionist
influences but then moving into the
geometric realm. My early paint-

ing was influenced by the New
York School and the early Russian
Constructivists, but eventually people
like Rothko and Diebenkorn, who
combined the geometric tradition with
a softer, more painterly touch came
along. That is the quality I strive for
today.
“Because of my childhood and
my history, I’ve always been very
political. My whole world, all the Jews
I knew, were very ‘left.’ Working class,
Workman’s Circle, Yiddish-speaking
people. So people who know that side
of me say I’m very nice on the outside
but very violent on the inside.
“But I’m not an angry painter,” he
says. “I love solving problems. I was
this kid with a very chaotic life — my
childhood, then living with my step-
dad, this guy I didn’t know. So my art is
the opposite of chaos.
“I think art is very organic with me,”
Lichtman says. “I think of my art as an
escape or a crutch — it’s my therapy.
It’s about reason and stability, not sen-
timentality. Structure, harmony and
balance, combined with the chance
element, the spontaneous and the
fragile, human touch. How to reconcile
the two tendencies in the works is the
challenge.”
As in life. When Lichtman does
speaking engagements, he tells his
story, with photos of his childhood,
and he gives the facts, straightforward.
“But in the end, I do talk about ‘les-
sons learned,’” he says. “I talk of the
two Righteous Gentiles who saved me
and my mother, and the responsibility
of the audience to fight against injus-
tice today.
“It’s always about reconciling the
chaos,” he says, “and creating some-
thing out of it.” •

Let Us Tell Your Story

For many weeks, the JN has been sharing stories of
local multi-generational families. We’ve heard from
a family of doctors, a family of mohels, a family of
volunteers and more. We know there are more of
you out there with stories to tell.

Please send a high-resolution image (1mb jpg)
of multiple generations in your family to kcohen@
renmedia.us with caption information that includes
full names, cities and when the photo was taken.
Let us know what’s special about your family, too.
Include your phone number and email, and please
put “multi-generation” in the subject line. If you have
a non-digital photo, send it and the other information
to Keri Guten Cohen, 29200 Northwestern Hwy.,
Suite 110, Southfi eld, MI 48034. We can return
your photo to you.

Thanks! We look forward
to sharing your family
with our JN family
of readers!

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May 3 • 2018

39