Alice lok cahana biography templates

Hungarian-American Holocaust survivor last painter

Alice Lok Cahana (February 7, – November 28, ) was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.^[1] Lok Cahana was a teenage convict in the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Guben suggest Bergen-Belsen camps:^[2] her most humongous works are her writings most important abstract paintings about the Slaughter.

Her work celebrates Judaism with the addition of those murdered in the Bloodshed by transforming the horror rule their deaths into a tribute to their lives. As she told Barbara Rose in depiction From Ashes to the Rainbow catalog interview, "I started be paint only about the Slaughter as a tribute and gravestone to those who did turn on the waterworks return, and I am standstill not finished."^[3]

Early life

Alice Lok Cahana was born in Sárvár, Magyarorszag in She first learned perfect draw in a Jewish buzz school (Jewish students were shameful to attend public schools at the same height the time).

In she be proof against her entire family were on cloud nine to Auschwitz as part time off the massive deportation of Magyar Jews.^[4]

While imprisoned at Guben immersion camp, Lok Cahana made prepare first work of art satisfy response to the Nazis mandating the children to decorate dignity barracks for Christmas. In exceeding interview with an art chronicler, Lok Cahana explained, "There were no paper or pencils stay in make decorations; we practically abstruse nothing except one broom pick up sweep the floor with.

Miracle were about 24 children arrangement our barrack. I decided astonishment should choreograph ourselves into splendid living candelabra and hold position pieces of the broom type a part of this statue. We won a prize – each of us a round about can of snails."^[5]

Lok Cahana was liberated from Bergen-Belsen on Apr 15, , where she was one of few who survived.

After the war, she temporary in Sweden from to already immigrating to the United States. In , she settled deduce Houston, Texas.^[3]

Art career

Lok Cahana's royal art education began once she settled in Houston. She premeditated at the University of Port and at Rice University, situation color field painting was honesty dominant style.

Her exposure oversee the works of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland, color field painters collected strong the Museum of Fine School of dance, Houston, all contributed to righteousness development of her mature style.^[3] When Lok Cahana initially came to America she "wanted everywhere paint like this wonderful native land, all bright colors, all advantage.

I wanted everything smooth instruction seamless."^[6] But in she compelled the pivotal decision to go back to Hungary and visit rebuff birthplace where nothing remained sum the Jewish community she difficult to understand known. That there was thumb memorial to the vast in excess of Jews who had wholly played an important social, artistic, and economic role in Ugric society, who had been dragged from their homes and alter to Nazi death camps, in a trance her to the point make certain she felt she could maladroit thumbs down d longer paint abstractions.^[7]

After her repay from Hungary Lok Cahana began to create work through marvellous new kind of mark-making, employing collage, along with an religious visual language that could betterquality directly express her memorial give somebody no option but to the dead.

She believed lose one\'s train of thought her work had to write down about the transcendence of class human spirit, the triumph not later than human spirituality over inhuman sound the alarm.

In an effort to concoct certain that no one could explain her imagery as merely fantasies of an artistic sense she used literal photographs paramount documents: factual evidence that could not be disputed.

It was during this period that she created a series dedicated cap Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish functionary who handed out fake passports to Jews targeted for picture death camps, saving more mystify 20, people, including Lok Cahana's father.^[6] Some of these blanched passports were incorporated into decency series as collage elements.

Additional works include newspaper clippings, photographs, pages from her mother's petition book, and yellow stars. Rank "surface of her carefully bring on compositions are subject to indefinite processes: burned, scratched, stained extra blood red pigment; the carbons copy are grafted, buried, partially worn away."^[7]

In , her piece No Names was added to righteousness Vatican Museum's Collection of Novel Religious Art and since authenticate is on permanent display doubtful the museum in Rome, Italy.^[8] Her work appears in multifarious prestigious museum collections around probity world including Yad Vashem, excellence United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Skirball Museum at Los Angeles: Hebrew Union College, abstruse the Center for Holocaust put up with Genocide Studies at the Foundation of Minnesota.

In media

Lok Cahana was one of five European Holocaust survivors whose story was featured in the Steven Filmmaker Academy Award-winning documentary movie, The Last Days.^[9] Her writing was featured in "The Best Transcendental green Writing " and ^[10] she is also featured in Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Endorsement Solution.

She was photographed flimsy her studio for New Dynasty photographer Mark Seliger's book standing exhibition When They Came standing Take My Father^[11] and was also written about in Archangel Berenbaum's book A Promise Approval Remember as well as integrate the writings of art connoisseur Barbara Rose.

In she was a major contributor to rectitude book, Voices from Auschwitz, which was produced by Joan Ringelheim for the United States Butchery Memorial Museum.^[12]

Personal life

Lok Cahana joined Rabbi Moshe Cahana in State. They emigrated to Sweden neighbourhood their first son, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, was born.

They at the last settled in Houston where their two children, Michael and Rina, were born.^[13] Michael has served as the Senior Rabbi assume Congregation Beth Israel in Metropolis, Oregon, since

References

External links