Art from a Siberian Prison Camp

I don't think I can give the experience the justice it deserves, but on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I had one of the most momentous artistic moments in my life.  My pals Penny and Mary and I paid a visit on Marian Steen, a St. Louis artist who's also a friend of my friends.  Here's a picture of the four of us when we had lunch at O'Connell's two years ago.*

Marian inherited two old battered suitcases packed full with 294 pictorial images created in a World War I Siberian prisoner-of-war camp. The prisoners were officers from central Europe (Austria, Hungary, etc) who were in the prison camp for four or five years. Because they were officers, they were able to buy their own food, furniture, and art supplies. Some of them even hired servants. But, still, they were prisoners. In Siberia.

During their years as captives, several of the artistic officers created watercolors, pencil sketches, silhouettes, and even two oils of their experiences. There are drawings of laundry hanging on clothes lines, interiors of the barracks, prisoners at meals, in bed, exercising, playing cards--that sort of thing.  There are also satirical drawings of the guards and their living conditions.  Food scarcity became a serious issue so there are drawings of prisoners fighting the cooks.  There is one excruciating drawing of a prisoner comforting a comrade who has just been sentenced to death.  In this one there are six corpses hanging from nooses in the background.

The drawings are mostly quite small, typically 6" x 6".  They are done almost entirely in the German Expressionism style of the period. 

One prisoner, an Austrian engineer, managed to take them with him upon his release. His daughter and son-in-law snuck them out of Austria when they escaped to America in the late 1930's and kept them under their bed until their death in the late 1990's. They were willed to Marian, a daughter of their lifelong friends, and she has taken on the huge responsibility of trying to insure that these unique pieces stay together in a location where they can be useful for artistic and historic education.

Several years ago, Marian and her husband Rick Knox mounted a show, "Drawings and Paintings of World War I Internees of the Krasnovarsk, Siberia Prison Camp" in St. Louis. At the same time they engaged an art historian to inventory the collection. As part of that process, there's now a book of all the art work, many of them reproduced in full because of their small size.

Once the collection was appraised (for a lot), Marian and Rick stored it in a fireproof safe while they figure out how to make sure that they end up in a suitable place.  I just reread this and realize I'm not able to convey the enormity of the experience of seeing this obscure record of life in a Siberian prison camp.  Looking through the drawings is both fascinating and horrifying.  The task of insuring that this body of 294 drawings remain together is enormous.  I'm rooting for Marian to find the right home for this work.

* In the photo from left to right, Marian, Mary, me, Pemy

Chuck Close and Jacob Lawrence at Akron Art Museum

November 1, 2009

Akron has seen better days.  It's history as America's rubber capitol is long gone, and nothing significant seems to have replaced it.  Its Museum of Art is small, and specializes in art produced or owned by locals.  It's much better than you might think, though.  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many artists worked in northwest Ohio and their paintings hanging in the museum now are very satisfying.  I'm not sure one goes to a museum to be satisfied, but that's how I felt this afternoon.

The Museum's highlights, though, are its contemporary works, some of which are pretty exciting.  My favorite is strictly funky.  It's by two artists who commissioned a poll to find out what Akronians wanted to see in a piece of art.  The result is a painting full of automobile tires, unicorns, and assorted frogs.  You gotta laugh.

A show of Chuck Close pieces owed by Ohioans dominates several galleries.  I don't think I've ever been to a show solely of his work, so I was surprised to find the net effect a bit spooky.  Also up is an exhibition of perhaps 15 paintings by Jacob Lawrence of John Brown and his abolitionist efforts.  I've always liked Jacob Lawrence, and hadn't seen these before, maybe because they're in Akron?  John Brown's family lived in nearby Hudson, Ohio for a while, so perhaps that's why the Museum owns these.