Henri EPSTEIN (1892-1944)
Paysage, 1930
Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Henri Epstein
Came across another painting at auction by Henri Epstein, a Polish painter who died at Auschwitz. I am always taken aback when I see one of his works, thinking of all the artists who would have died at that time.
Henri EPSTEIN (1892-1944)
Paysage, 1930
Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm
Henri EPSTEIN (1892-1944)
Paysage, 1930
Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
40
Well, it caught me. I turned 40 last week, and was very happy to have my mom here to celebrate it with me. We saw the movie Eat Pray Love and really enjoyed it - inspiration for our future trip to Italy. Seems fitting that there are so many changes in my life right now. I'm turning my art gallery into an online gallery, embracing my own artwork by starting to paint after probably 12 years away from it, and embracing my white hairs by letting them grow out! We'll see what happens with that last one....
I'm also moving - not to N. Cal. as I'd always planned, but leaving the AZ desert for the snows of Traverse City, MI, where I grew up. Yes, it's a surprise to me too, but I can't wait! AZ has been good to me, hard on me, and a place where I feel like I've experienced many lifetimes, and it's time to move on. Looking forward to being around my family again, especially my 17 month old neice who is just irresistable - she's got the pull of an entire continent, apparently!
Onward.....
I'm also moving - not to N. Cal. as I'd always planned, but leaving the AZ desert for the snows of Traverse City, MI, where I grew up. Yes, it's a surprise to me too, but I can't wait! AZ has been good to me, hard on me, and a place where I feel like I've experienced many lifetimes, and it's time to move on. Looking forward to being around my family again, especially my 17 month old neice who is just irresistable - she's got the pull of an entire continent, apparently!
Onward.....
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Sunshine and Auschwitz
I've been learning to tell time by what color the eucalyptus leaves are outside my bedroom window. If they are warm orange in the morning sunlight, then it is 6am or so. By the time 7am rolls around, the orange is gone and the leaves are a warm green, bathed in yellow light. If it's after 8am, then the heat of the AZ sun is upon us. The eucalyptus is its usual silvery green color, the light is bright and the blue sky is already starting to fade from the bleaching effects of the sun.
I used to have no idea what color the leaves were at 6am, but am really enjoying shifting my living to "normal" hours. Wrigley and I go for a quick walk in the park before 8am, when it's too hot. I might even get to a 7:30 am yoga class one of these days!
Last night I dreamt that I was cracking eggs into a bowl, enjoying each one as it "blooped" into my hand first. Cupping one of the gelatinous forms, I felt a heartbeat. It was an amazing dream-land discovery, and I held this raw egg yolk form in my palms and just felt its heart beat. No explanation for it, just revelry.
I've been translating french auction catalogs into a database. Yesterday I translated some paintings by an artist, Henri Epstein, whose date and place of death were listed as 1944, Auschwitz. He has stuck in my mind and I wonder how many more artists like him were lost among the dead there. Henri was born in Lodz, Poland, which I now know of as it's where the Polish Fiber Triennial takes place, where several of my artists were included this year.
Henri Epstein’s father was a bookshop owner who died when he was three. His mother raised him and encouraged his encouraged his precocious interest in painting. He studied first at the Jakub Kacenbogen Drawing School in Lodz, then at the Fine Art Academy in Munich until the age of nineteen. In 1912 he first visited Paris, after which time he served in the Polish army.
In 1913 he returned to Paris and became a member of La Ruche until 1938, taking courses at La Grande Chaumiere Academy. His initially fauvist style evolved later towards expressionism.
In 1921, Epstein illustrated Gustave Coquiot’s work "Vagabondages" (Ollendorff) and in 1926 the work "Les Rois du Maquis" by Pierre Bonardi (André Delpeuch). He most probably participated in the inaugural edition of the jewish art review Makhmadim, published first by La Ruche and then by La Renaissance, for which he wrote articles in yiddish. Epstein bought a farm near Épernon which served both as an atelier and a refuge during the Occupation.
On 23 February 1944, he was arrested in Epernon by three Gestapo agents. Despite the efforts of his friends and his wife (the painter George Dorignac’s daughter) he was interned in Drancy on 24 February 1944 and deported on 7 March 1944 on convoy n°69. He was assassinated in Auschwitz.
From: http://www.ecoledeparis.org
I used to have no idea what color the leaves were at 6am, but am really enjoying shifting my living to "normal" hours. Wrigley and I go for a quick walk in the park before 8am, when it's too hot. I might even get to a 7:30 am yoga class one of these days!
Last night I dreamt that I was cracking eggs into a bowl, enjoying each one as it "blooped" into my hand first. Cupping one of the gelatinous forms, I felt a heartbeat. It was an amazing dream-land discovery, and I held this raw egg yolk form in my palms and just felt its heart beat. No explanation for it, just revelry.
I've been translating french auction catalogs into a database. Yesterday I translated some paintings by an artist, Henri Epstein, whose date and place of death were listed as 1944, Auschwitz. He has stuck in my mind and I wonder how many more artists like him were lost among the dead there. Henri was born in Lodz, Poland, which I now know of as it's where the Polish Fiber Triennial takes place, where several of my artists were included this year.
Henri Epstein’s father was a bookshop owner who died when he was three. His mother raised him and encouraged his encouraged his precocious interest in painting. He studied first at the Jakub Kacenbogen Drawing School in Lodz, then at the Fine Art Academy in Munich until the age of nineteen. In 1912 he first visited Paris, after which time he served in the Polish army.
In 1913 he returned to Paris and became a member of La Ruche until 1938, taking courses at La Grande Chaumiere Academy. His initially fauvist style evolved later towards expressionism.
In 1921, Epstein illustrated Gustave Coquiot’s work "Vagabondages" (Ollendorff) and in 1926 the work "Les Rois du Maquis" by Pierre Bonardi (André Delpeuch). He most probably participated in the inaugural edition of the jewish art review Makhmadim, published first by La Ruche and then by La Renaissance, for which he wrote articles in yiddish. Epstein bought a farm near Épernon which served both as an atelier and a refuge during the Occupation.
On 23 February 1944, he was arrested in Epernon by three Gestapo agents. Despite the efforts of his friends and his wife (the painter George Dorignac’s daughter) he was interned in Drancy on 24 February 1944 and deported on 7 March 1944 on convoy n°69. He was assassinated in Auschwitz.
From: http://www.ecoledeparis.org
Sunday, May 30, 2010
The Practice of Non-Practice
'It is important to do what you don't know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping ...you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.' - Carlos Casteneda
I have been thinking recently about my brain being worn out - particularly my left hemisphere. I worked it so hard, for so long, that I think it's just taking a really long break to recover! Thus, my right hemisphere was soundly neglected during, well, the entire first half of my life. I fondly remember revelling in academic study, wanting to be a student forever, looking forward to opening and running my own business, and simply enjoying "smartness." I honestly think I wore out my brain. I have long thought there was a struggle between the two hemispheres, but since the Left was slightly stronger it always won: suppressing full engagement with artistic pursuits and paths, leaning towards practical goals. Now my Right brain is cheerfully taking over, liberating me from structure and goal-oriented concerns - I'm finding myself in a very interesting place!
I'm newly appreciating having such a diversity of pursuits and interests in my life. I am working on several part-time jobs/income sources, devoting myself to very regular yoga practice and a vegan diet, and moving closer to creating my own artwork. These things all hold much more equal weight than in the past. I am looking forward to rebuilding my life around these elements, and to eliminating the multiple personalities required by success in the art gallery business. Not even multiple - I have felt for 10+ years that I had to forego my true personal inclinations and become whatever was expected of me by my clients and artists. Above and beyond a professional persona, I felt I was required to be quite a different person, and live my life a different way, than I was naturally inclined to. Distressing.
As I move forward in life, I am trying to rebuild myself as Myself, eliminate all that is not Me: people, objects, pursuits.... and am truly enjoying this freedom. I hope that I am building a foundation that will not waver when other people and jobs enter my life, but instead will add them to the pyramid that I am building as supportive elements, complimentary pieces. I suppose it takes 40 years to come to this point, and I'm grateful to live in an era when I have the luxury of time and resources to so decadently figure out my path.
The Casteneda quote was on facebook. I related to the idea of knowledge, practice, pursuits getting in the way of living. Two days after reading it, my yoga teacher talked about to practice yoga is to not practice, it is more about being and doing, day by day. Again, the universe sending me ideas repeatedly until I start to let them seep into my head.
The universe has also sent me some other interesting things this week. It has been a time of "be careful what you wish for," which I think is a wonderful, classic lesson we have to learn again and again. I have begun planning to move from Arizona, now that many of my ties have been released (business, relationship). It really is quite daunting to have the option to move wherever in the country I want to, and though I'm pretty well settled on my destination I have been in no hurry to bounce myself out of here; a casual two years of thinking, preparing, researching seemed quite pleasantly reasonable! Then, I asked for some direction as to my path, some clarity, and was quickly presented with a situation that may compell me to move in as little as six months. Six months!!!! I think the universe just gave me a big kick in the pants!!! And honestly, I can't deny that I need it. OK. 6 months. Here we go! I love a deadline without a safety net!!!!!
I have been thinking recently about my brain being worn out - particularly my left hemisphere. I worked it so hard, for so long, that I think it's just taking a really long break to recover! Thus, my right hemisphere was soundly neglected during, well, the entire first half of my life. I fondly remember revelling in academic study, wanting to be a student forever, looking forward to opening and running my own business, and simply enjoying "smartness." I honestly think I wore out my brain. I have long thought there was a struggle between the two hemispheres, but since the Left was slightly stronger it always won: suppressing full engagement with artistic pursuits and paths, leaning towards practical goals. Now my Right brain is cheerfully taking over, liberating me from structure and goal-oriented concerns - I'm finding myself in a very interesting place!
I'm newly appreciating having such a diversity of pursuits and interests in my life. I am working on several part-time jobs/income sources, devoting myself to very regular yoga practice and a vegan diet, and moving closer to creating my own artwork. These things all hold much more equal weight than in the past. I am looking forward to rebuilding my life around these elements, and to eliminating the multiple personalities required by success in the art gallery business. Not even multiple - I have felt for 10+ years that I had to forego my true personal inclinations and become whatever was expected of me by my clients and artists. Above and beyond a professional persona, I felt I was required to be quite a different person, and live my life a different way, than I was naturally inclined to. Distressing.
As I move forward in life, I am trying to rebuild myself as Myself, eliminate all that is not Me: people, objects, pursuits.... and am truly enjoying this freedom. I hope that I am building a foundation that will not waver when other people and jobs enter my life, but instead will add them to the pyramid that I am building as supportive elements, complimentary pieces. I suppose it takes 40 years to come to this point, and I'm grateful to live in an era when I have the luxury of time and resources to so decadently figure out my path.
The Casteneda quote was on facebook. I related to the idea of knowledge, practice, pursuits getting in the way of living. Two days after reading it, my yoga teacher talked about to practice yoga is to not practice, it is more about being and doing, day by day. Again, the universe sending me ideas repeatedly until I start to let them seep into my head.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Hear Music series
One of my very favorite places of discovery was Hear Music in Berkeley, CA. I hear that it's gone now, which makes me sad as I discovered some most amazing music there. I also heard that Starbucks bought it some time ago, so follow the breadcrumbs..... Artist Kay Khan just posted this video by Beirut, the band formed by a young man from New Mexico whose music I've described as Balkan Funeral Music. I love LOVE the forlorn, gypsy qualities of Beirut and decided to share this video with you.
Another few weeks of 3-4 yoga classes per week have been wonderful. I so appreciate this new flexibility in my schedule (pun intended?) that allows me to focus on yoga, and other things that are important to me. I have been thinking to rename my blog something like "Returning to Wendyness" as this is what this time in my life feels like. As I think about moving onward from this point, I am trying to evaluate what pieces I must take with me. Yoga, health, art (mine and others), openness, freedom of time and place and destination and home location. Nomadicism (is that a word? I like it!). Paring down seems to lead to happiness, weightlessness, which is why the idea of a nomadic life seems so appealing to me right now. Taking only what I need, what will fit, and knowing that everything left behind was unnecessary and was holding me down with its weight of ownership. Although I'm pretty sure the animals and I would get pretty fed up with each other pretty quickly!
Enjoy.
Another few weeks of 3-4 yoga classes per week have been wonderful. I so appreciate this new flexibility in my schedule (pun intended?) that allows me to focus on yoga, and other things that are important to me. I have been thinking to rename my blog something like "Returning to Wendyness" as this is what this time in my life feels like. As I think about moving onward from this point, I am trying to evaluate what pieces I must take with me. Yoga, health, art (mine and others), openness, freedom of time and place and destination and home location. Nomadicism (is that a word? I like it!). Paring down seems to lead to happiness, weightlessness, which is why the idea of a nomadic life seems so appealing to me right now. Taking only what I need, what will fit, and knowing that everything left behind was unnecessary and was holding me down with its weight of ownership. Although I'm pretty sure the animals and I would get pretty fed up with each other pretty quickly!
Enjoy.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Desert photos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
