Underwings Art Gallery

UNDER THE WINGS OF G-D
UNTER DEN FLUGELN GOTTES
Pod Skrzydlami Boga
Bajo las Alas de Dios
&
SIGHT-SEEING WITH DIGNITY

ART GALLERIES

UNDER THE WINGS OF G-D
portrays WWII era victims of Nazism, Fascism and the silence of much of the
western worlds peoples, governmental,
corporate and religious leaders
~
SIGHT-SEEING WITH DIGNITY
portrays victims of
post-1945 race hate, wars and
contemporary genocides

All the artworks in Under the Wings of G-D
and Sight-seeing with Dignity are copyright protected.
Please do not reproduce artworks without permission, thank you


Section One UWG Art No. 1-10 artworks created late 1991 when the series began, throught fall 1992.	Section Two UWG Art No. 11 - 26 includes art created 1993-94; one work is in progress	Section Three UWG Art No. 27- 43 includes art created 1994-96	Section Four UWG Art No. 44 - ongoing. Includes art created since 2000	Section Five SwD Art No. 1 - ongoing Includes art created since 2002 depicting non- Jewish victims of Nazism & Fascism; and victims of post-WWII race hate, and contemporary genocides & wars

Detail of Bar Mitzvah Age Boy
in the Warsaw Ghetto
please click to enlarge

No human race is superior;
no religious faith is inferior.
All collective judgments are wrong.
Only racists make them.
- ELIE WIESEL, Holocaust survivor & Nobel Peace Prize winner,
(quote from PARADE magazine article, Nov. 14, 1996,
The Sunday Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer)

Fundamentalism means the thinker is
absolutely sure he is right.
You don't want to learn new facts,
because they might disturb your previous opinions.
You become convinced that your truths have come from God
and anyone who disagrees with you is wrong,
and the next step is that they're inferior,
and the ultimate case is, they're subhuman.
That leads to a lot of the persecution in the world.

- former PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER
(quoted in Book magazine article)

Chief Red Jacket's Speech Against Missionaries Efforts
to Baptize Members of the Seneca Tribe - 1805

UWG49-Foto.jpg (59098 bytes) Relatives of the Artist Murdered during the Shoah

Special thanks to the staff, faculty & students at the
University of Washington's Burke Museum for
generous assistance with the wings collections since 1991...
without which the Under the Wings of G-d & Sight-seeing with Dignity series would be but an idea.

Please consider a tax-deductible contribution to the
University of Washington Burke Museum's Endowment for Ornithology.

Please click to enlarge 1991 India ink on white paper 32 inches H x 32 inches W 81.2 X 81.2 cm Framed Please click image to enlarge The lower right photo was used for the Muranow drawing please click to enlarge above: detail of Under the WIngs of G-d exhibit at the Broadway Market shopping mall, fall 1996. Seen at the left of the Trolley drawing are Two Standing Children and Man with Tattered Coat.	Section One: UWG No. 1 - 10 THE MURANOW STREET TROLLEY CAR IN THE WARSAW GHETTO Der Muranower Strassenbahnwagen im Warschauer Ghetto Tramwaj na ulicy Muranowskiej Getcie Warszawskim UWG Art No. 1 Drawn from a photo in the book The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - 45th Anniversary (Interpress, Warsaw, 1988) this drawing became the first drawing of the Under the Wings of G-D series. The photo is in the chapter Life in the Ghetto. I was struck by the three figures: the conductor and two men on either side of the of the front of the trolley, all of whom, I contemplated, probably went up in smoke in the gas chambers or died in the ghetto, itself a concentration camp where over one-hundred thousand people died in 1941. The trolley itself would have been removed by the Nazi's for its valuable metal. Ulica (Polish for street) Muranowska was a well-known street in the old Jewish quarter of Warsaw. After drawing the trolley, I was transfixed by its innocence - surrounded by the white space of the drawing paper, and I decided to add wings. The two wings were drawn on subsequent visits to the Burke Museum of Natural History at the University of Washington in Seattle. After completing the wings I had my photographer take a photo and he made an 8x10" black and white print. It reproduced so well at that size that I decided to create a drawing series based on archival and family photos. The series of fifty works, of which over forty are completed as of 2000, is meant to offer a "restoration of dignity to the memory of those murdered because of their birth." Admired not only for their aesthetic beauty, they are accessible to children, youth and adults. In school presentations, the drawings have been warmly received by students of a wide variety of religious, ethnic and national backgrounds, among them Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims. Lessons to be learned from the Holocaust have universal applications useful to all people.

Please click image to enlarge 1992 India ink on cream paper 38 inches H x 26 W 96.5 x 66 cm Framed with the support of the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, Washington	MAN WITH TATTERED COAT Mann mit zerrissenemem Mantel Czlowiek w zniszczonym plaszczu UWG Art No. 2 Drawn from a photo of a man, perhaps in his 20's or 30's whose coat appears to be unraveling everywhere, exposing layers of fabric and the insides of the garment. I was struck by his gaze directly into the camera's lens, and his look which was not dissimilar to young homeless men and women I see in downtown Seattle everyday. As in photos of other people taken by Nazi soldiers in the Warsaw Ghetto, this man sits on the sidewalk, waiting... The drawing was inspired by this photo. It is in the chapter titled Ecce Homo in the book The Warsaw Ghetto - 45th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Monday, February 7, 1944 Dear Mommy, I got your letter and the photo, which I liked very much. Saturday there was snow, it's not real cold yet, there's a big terrace where you can see the whole landscape and it's very pretty to see all the mountain covered with snow. I need underpants and socks, the director said you'd send me 100 francs because she has a coupon to buy shoes. Are you feeling well? I'm fine, I'm eating well and I'm having fun and I'm feeling well. Your son who loves you very much sends you 1000000000 kisses. Georgy Georgy Halpern was born in Vienna, Austria on Oct. 30, 1935. He was arrested at the orphanage in Izieu, France on April 6, 1944 and deported in train convoy number 71 to Auschwitz where he was murdered on arrival.
Please click to enlarge 1992 Ink on white paper 22 3/8 inches H x 30 1/4 W paper size 58.4 x 76.8 cm (unframed)	CHILD LIFTING HEAD OF MAN WHO DIED ON THE STREET Kind hebt den Kopf eines auf der Strasse gestorbenen Mannes hoch Chlopiec podnoszacy glowe zmarlego na ulicy czlowieka UWG Art No. 3 Drawn from one of two Warsaw Ghetto photos that must’ve been taken in quick succession. Descriptions of Photos

Please click to enlarge 1992 26 3/4 inches H x 39 W 67.9 x 99 cm Framed	CHILD WITH CAP Kind mit Mütze Dziecko z czapka UWG Art No. 4 Drawn from a Warsaw Ghetto photo seen in "The 45^th Anniversary" It is unclear whether the child is a boy or a girl (although most girls and women think both the photo and my drawing are of a girl; most boys and men think otherwise). After completing the portrait, I approached the drawing of the wings with great alarm for fear of ruining a perfectly good portrait. After many months of delay (during which time I worked on other works in the series) I began the wings; fortunately, thankfully (!) each succeeded, to my great relief.

Please click to enlarge 1992 37 3/8" H x 29 1/4" W 93.9 x 74.2 Framed with the support of the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle	OLD MAN PRAYING Alter betender Mann Stary modlacy sie mezczyzna UWG Art No. 5 Inspired by a photo of an unknown religious man praying in a secret hidden schul, or synagogue, in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Germans banned synagogues, study houses, schools, orphanages and other institutions of everyday life, but they flourished underground.
"The Angels, I think, represented that even ordinary people can be righteous...." - excerpt from a letter sent to the artist by Sam G., a 7th grade student at Temple Judea Sunday School, West Palm Beach, Florida, following a Holocaust Education through Art slide presentation, March 1999

Please click to enlarge 1992 India ink on paper 36 3/4" H x 25 3/8" W 93.3 x 64.1 cm Framed	TWO STANDING CHILDREN Zwei stehende Kinder Dwoje stojacych dzieci UWG Art No. 6 Drawn from one among many photos of children in the ghetto. Frequently they are in ragged clothes, with shoes made out of rags tightly wound around their feet. One and a half million children were murdered by the Nazi's and their allies.

Please click to enlarge 1992 Ink on paper 28n 3/4 H x 36 3/4" W 73 x 93.3 cm Framed	SICK BOY WITH MIDDLE AGED WOMAN IN PEDICAB Kranker Junge mit mittelalterlicher Frau im Pedicab Chory chlopiec z pania w srednim wieku w rykszy UWG Art No. 7 Drawn from a Warsaw Ghetto photo taken in September 19th, 1941 by Nazi soldier Heinz Jost who entered the ghetto with a camera on his birthday - a special gift for himself! All of his Warsaw Ghetto photos were recently published in the book In the Ghetto of Warsaw (Steidl Verlag, Gottingen, Germany, 2001 in English & German editions). Jost's note for this photo stated: "Where was the rickshaw driver intending to bring this child sick with typhoid fever? Did a hospital for Jews even exist anymore? None of my German comrades could tell me that." Jost's note makes no sense since pedicabs in the ghetto were both man-powered by pushing as well those that were bicycle-style, like an Indian rickshaw. Pedicabs were unknown in Warsaw prior to the sealing-in of the ghetto as a concentration camp and were used to transport the infirm and elderly. The photo shows a Jewish man pushing pedicab with the boy and woman; he is standing upright. The first drawing where the wings were drawn to the edge of "the picture plane," i.e. to the edge of the drawing paper.

Please click to enlarge 1992 Ink 26 3/4" H x 33 3/4" W 67.9 x 85.7 cm (unframed)	YOUNG MAN WITH CONTAINER HELPING OLD MAN TO WALK Junger Mann mit Gefab hilft einem alten Mann zu gehen Mlody mezczyzna z naczyniem pomagajacy isc staremu mezczyznie UWG Art No. 8 Drawn from a Warsaw Ghetto photo.

Please click to enlarge 1992 Ink 22" H x 30 1/8" W paper size 55.8 x 76.2 cm (unframed)	TWO SEATED GIRLS, ONE APPEARING TO BE BLIND Zwei sitzende Madchen, eins scheint Blind zu sein Dwie siedzace dziewczyny, jedna prawdopodobnie slepa UWG Art No. 9 Drawn from a Warsaw Ghetto photo taken by Nazi soldier Heinz Jost. [Also see UWG Drawings No. 7, 20 and 33] The girl on the right appears to be blind....both were sitting on the sidewalk. Jost's photo caption stated: "It was the 19th of September and a cold day when I took these pictures of two girls in Krochmalna Street. One could see they they were sick and had no more strength to live."

Please click to enlarge 1992 Ink on paper 46 inches H x 52 inches W (unframed) i Please click to enlarge 1943 photos taken by a Nazi soldier during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: buildings are in flames. The balconies at upper left of the left-frame photo are depicted in the upper left of the drawing please click to enlarge: Warsaw's Jewish District after the liquidation (destruction) of the ghetto, April- May 1943 and the murder of most of the 50,000 Jews still alive when the Uprising began on April 19, 1943. April 19, 1943 was also the first night of Pesach (Passover) that year.	THREE JEWS JUMPING FROM BURNING BUILDINGS DURING THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, 1943 Drei Juden springen aus brennenden Gebauden wahrend des Aufstands im Warschauer Ghetto, 1943 Trzech Zydow wyskakujacych z plonacych budynkow podczas Powstania w Getcie Warszawskim UWG Art No. 10 The drawing was inspired by five different photos taken by one or more German soldiers recording the destruction of the ghetto under the command of German SS-Major General Juergen Stroop. These photos can be seen in The Jewish Quarter is No More! The Stroop Report (Pantheon, NY '79) and other books. His daily reports to Berlin on the progress of his military campaign against the 50,000 or so Jews still alive in the ghetto in early April 1943 included photographs and statistical reports on the numbers of German soldiers and their allies killed or injured, and the number of Jews and bandits killed or captured, his words to describe the heroic fighters who fought back against their oppressors. The woman (center figure), whose wings are formed by negative (white) space survived the jump, was captured by German soldiers and eventually murdered in a concentration camp. At the time I worked on the drawing, it presented me with one overriding aesthetic concern - How much background should I draw? At one point I contemplated drawing in all the windows and bricks of the buildings behind the two men and the woman. I eventually chose a mix of drawn image and white space - to evoke a feeling - - After the war, the old Jewish Quarter of Warsaw was not rebuilt as it had been. When I visited Warsaw in 1984 and 1985 and walked around the plaza where The Warsaw Ghetto Fighters Monument stands, created by the sculptor Natan Rapaport. I had no idea at the time that underneath the pavement there as well as in nearby streets - now the site of large concrete apartment buildings - lie the remains of thousands of Jews who died during the fighting of the April-May Uprising. Their bones are unconsecrated and unburied according to customs of Jewish law concerning the dead. Stroop was convicted of war crimes by a U.S. Military Court in Dachau, Germany in 1947and sentenced to death for executing captured U.S. airmen, but the sentence wasn't carried out. Later he was sent to Poland where he was tried for war crimes, convicted and hung in 1951.

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