 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
  On
July 3, 2014, after a fifty-eight year absence from Poland, I landed at the
Warsaw Okęcie Airport and was greeted by my friends and hosts, Paula and
Mirosław Sawicki. I was encouraged to return to Poland by my friend, artist
Wojciech Fangor, who, along with Stefan Szydlowski welcomed me to deliver a
lecture/slide presentation on my drawings, “Fourteen Stations/Hey Yud Dalet” at
the Stefan Szydlowski Gallery. Now a gray-haired man of sixty-nine, I returned
to the place I left as a boy.
I was fortunate to see much of Warsaw and
met many wonderful people. In addition to new and old Warsaw, Mirek and Paula
took me to Treblinka. I walked on the place that was so familiar to me from my
drawings. It was a heart-wrenching full circle between memories and experience.
I was surprised to find raspberries growing on the pine-forested periphery of
the memorial-boulder-filled site. I tasted some, and they were sweet.
As
Paula drove us back to Warsaw, we passed a stork nest perched atop a telephone
pole. Sticking their necks up from the bramble were two adult birds and two
chicks. I took this as a hopeful omen.
This was the first time I met my
friend, artist Krzysztof Bojarczuk, in person.
Krzysztof probed my reactions
to the visit, and asked whether it might become a creative bridge between us.
For weeks ideas gestated in my head, without expressing themselves through my
fingers. Then, the birth of our grandson, Declan, breathed joy and renewal into
our lives, allowing my hands to speak.
Memory, hate, chaos, pain,
rebirth, joy, spilled out onto the sheets of paper. I let the drawings direct my
hand to their ultimate realization. I returned to a place that was always within
me. CLICK HERE FOR POLISH TRANSLATION
|
|
Return-Powrot I - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot II - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot III - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot IV - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot - Three Suites after Images by Jerome Rothenberg and Arie Galles
|
|
Return-Powrot
I |
Return-Powrot
II |
Return-Powrot
III |
Return-Powrot
IV |
|
Return-Powrot V - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot VI - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot VII - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic
Return-Powrot VIII - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel
|
|
Return-Powrot
V |
Return-Powrot
VI |
Return-Powrot
VII |
Return-Powrot
VIII |
|
Return-Powrot IX - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel
Return-Powrot X - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel
Return-Powrot XI - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel
Return-Powrot XII - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel
|
|
Return-Powrot
IX |
Return-Powrot
X |
Return-Powrot
XI |
Return-Powrot
XII |
|
Arie Galles and Krzysztof Bojarchuk at Anda Rottenberg's, Warsaw, Poland - 7/2/2014
Anda Rottenberg, Krzysztof Bojarchuk, Paula Sawicka, Ewa Andrzejewska, and Miroslaw Sawicki at Anda Rottenberg's, Warsaw, Poland - 7/2/2014
Miroslaw Sawicki, Arie Galles and Anda Rottenberg at Anda Rottenberg's, Warsaw, Poland - 7/2/2014
Wojciech Fangor and Arie Galles at Fangor’s home in Bledow, Poland - 7/2/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
|
Arie Galles, Filip Sawicki and Miroslaw Sawicki at Fangor’s orchard in Bledow, Poland - 7/2/2014
Arie Galles, Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Fangor, Agnieszka Meyro and Stefan Szydlowski at the Karczma, (Inn), “U Jakuba,” Grojec, Poland – 7/2/2014
Paula Sawicka, Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Fangor and Agnieszka Meyro at the Karczma, (Inn), “U Jakuba,” Grojec, Poland – 7/2/2014
Paula Sawicka and Miroslaw Sawicki at their apartment, Warsaw, Poland, – 7/3/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Arie Galles in front of the Palac Kultury i Nauki, (Palace of Culture and Science), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Janusz Korczak Memorial, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Arie Galles and Wlodyslaw Labno before Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Jan Dobkowski and Arie Galles after Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Mariusz Kobzdej and Arie Galles after Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Paula Sawicka at Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Ewa Andrzejewska, Marian Turski, unidentified, in rear, Krystyna Piotrowska at Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Paula Sawicka and Marian Turski at Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Antoni Starowieyski, Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Fangor, Arie Galles, in rear: Krystyna Piotrowska and Ewa Andrzejewska after Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Arie Galles, Monika Krygier and Stefan Szydlowski with poster for Arie’s lecture, on his Suite of Drawings, “Fourteen Stations/Hey Yud Dalet,” at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Wojciech Fangor, Elzbieta Kozlowska, Agnieszka Meyro, Tomasz Olszewski, Anna Olszewska, Miroslaw Sawicki, Krystyna Piotrowska and Arie Galles at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Stefan Szydlowski, Anna Olszewska and Tomasz Olszewski and Monika Krygier at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Jacek Kozlowski and Wojciech Fangor at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Jacek Kozlowski, Elzbieta Kozlowska, Ewa Szydlowska, Stefan Szydlowski, Anna Olszewska, Tomasz Olszewski, Monika Krygier, Miroslaw Sawicki, Krystyna Piotrowska and Paula Sawicka at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014
Miroslaw Sawicki, Jakub Winnicki, Paula Sawicka, Marian Turski (lecturing) Adriana Rewald, Paula Rewald and Roman Rewald, at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland - 7/4/2014
Painted Ceiling of the reconstructed wooden Gwozdziec Synagogue at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland - 7/4/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Arie Galles at the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters Monument, Warsaw, Poland - 7/4/2014
Arie Galles in Old Town Square, Warsaw, Poland – 7/5/2014
Demarcation where once the Warsaw Ghetto wall stood, Warsaw, Poland - 7/5/2014
Krystyna Piotrowska, Krzysztof Stepinski, Paula Sawicka, Miroslaw Sawicki, Anna Niewiadomska, Grzegorz Gauden and Janina Stepinska at the Sawicki’s apartment, Warsaw, Poland – 7/5/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Arie Galles and Krystyna Piotrowska at the Sawicki’s apartment, Warsaw, Poland - 7/5/2014
Monument field, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014
“Never Again” entrance to the monument field, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014
Burning Pit, the monument field, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
Memorial Marker for the Jews of Gora Kalwaria, (Herman Nuss’, Sara Nuss-Galles’ father’s family members were murdered in this camp), Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014
Memorial Marker for the Jews of Piaseczno, (Prywa Lukowska-Nuss’, Sara Nuss-Galles’ mother’s family members were murdered in this camp), Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014
Paula Sawicka and Arie Galles, (Paula’s family members were murdered in this camp), Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014
Miroslaw Sawicki and Arie Galles at the Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland - 7/6/2014
|
|
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
(click on picture for details) |
|
|
|
|
 |
