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SURVIVORS
AND LIBERATORS:
AN EXHIBITION OF PORTRAITS BY WILMA BULKIN SIEGEL
April 8-October 16
Wilma Bulkin Siegel began painting portraits of Holocaust survivors
living in South Florida in 2003. This installation of watercolor
portraits at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale will not include
a predetermined number of pieces but will continue to grow and
change during the course of the exhibition.
Depending on the time of the year, between 10,000 and 15,000
survivors live in South Florida, along with the many thousands
of men and women who served as soldiers during World War II.
While the population of potential subjects is vast, it is hardly
permanent. The realization that so many faces and stories are
passing away is what led Siegel to begin this project.
"
This is a living monument to the Holocaust," the artist
explains. "These people are the 'heirlooms' of the many
people who perished, and so they are a reality of life, not death.
Even after six decades, since their lives were so affected by
one of the most debasing horrors of the 20th century, my subjects
have a message that has not lost its impact. Their message to
the world is important because of the vast destruction that can
once again occur if we allow prejudice to continue."
Wilma Bulkin Siegel is a painter who divides her time between
Fort Lauderdale and New York City. She is an active participant
in the Third Avenue Art District in Fort Lauderdale and a member
of the South Florida group 2+3, the Artists' Organization.
In 1990 Siegel retired from her practice as an oncologist at
Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
During her medical career, she was instrumental in creating one
of the first hospices in the United States to include AIDS patients,
which inspired her to explore ways of using art to find the compassion
needed for the healing process. "I realized that art could
be healing for my subjects," she says, "and it was
satisfying for me to be able to offer, as a painter, what I'd
long provided as a physician."
Siegel's watercolors, which are usually on a grand scale of 30" x
40", are bold, direct, and very personal portraits. She
incorporates photographs, snapshots, and enigmatic mementoes
belonging to the subjects into their portraits, each of which
extols a casual intimacy while also serving as a chronicle, a
record of a life. A short biography of the subject accompanies
each portrait, retracing the routes from Europe's concentration
camps to life in the United States.
One of the 60 subjects Siegel has painted during the last year
is Betty Ventura. At age 10, she learned that her father was
dead at the hands of the Germans, who had invaded her village
of Oshmiana, Poland, rounded up the Jewish men, and taken them
into the forest to murder. Ventura was taken to Lithuania in
a cattle car and sent to a work camp. She heard her name called
out, and the voice turned out to be that of her aunt, who kept
her safe during the remaining years of the war. The portrait
was done when Ventura was living in Tamarac.
"
This exhibition is an extended family album in which we find,
lovingly recorded, the lives of people who were affected by the
Holocaust," says Irvin M. Lippman, Executive Director of
the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale. "Wilma combines a precise
documentary style with brilliant and robust color, underscoring
that these are, in fact, survivors who live astonishing lives."
This exhibition is made possible by supporters of the Exhibition
Fund.
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