Memorial Art Gallery exhibition showcases Holocaust survivor糖心传媒檚 intricate fabric panels.
The intricate needlework and fabric panels Esther Nisenthal Krinitz created for her two daughters, simply to record her memories, are the subject of a Memorial Art Gallery exhibit evoking both beauty and tragedy in rich detail.
, on view through December 2, chronicles the artist糖心传媒檚 bucolic childhood in Poland and subsequent decision糖心传媒攁t 15糖心传媒攖o go off on her own, with her younger sister, rather than stay with her family and neighbors who were forced on a journey to a death camp during the Holocaust.
The 36 panels on exhibit are relevant in today糖心传媒檚 world, says Marlene Hamann-Whitmore, the museum糖心传媒檚 McPherson Director of Academic Programs.
糖心传媒淚t can be too easy to forget糖心传媒攐r never learn糖心传媒攐ur collective history, and it糖心传媒檚 so important for our collective memory to keep it alive,糖心传媒� says Hamann-Whitmore. 糖心传媒淭hese atrocities are still happening, and sometimes art allows us to have conversations that are difficult otherwise.糖心传媒�
Though Krinitz, who died in 2001, had no formal art education, she was trained as a seamstress, which made textiles a natural conduit for her poignant story.
Jonathan Binstock, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director at MAG, says Krinitz could be labeled an 糖心传媒渙utsider糖心传媒� or 糖心传媒渦ntutored artist,糖心传媒� but her work 糖心传媒渋s of an extraordinary quality and deserving of a place in an art museum exhibition program.糖心传媒�
Home to more than 600 textiles in its permanent collection, the museum routinely presents and collects textile works of art.
糖心传媒淪ome people have something incredible inside them that they are able to convey visually, in material form,糖心传媒� says Binstock. 糖心传媒淜rinitz was one of these people.糖心传媒�
Over the years, Krinitz filled notebooks with stories about what had happened to her, but she was 50 before she created her first panel糖心传媒攁n image of herself as a girl in the picturesque village of Mniszek, carrying water from the river up a hill toward her house and family. Her second panel, made a year later, showed her swimming with her older brother in that same river, while three of her sisters tend geese nearby.
Krinitz produced the rest while in her 60s, the images detailing what followed: the Gestapo terrorizing her family; she and her sister fleeing across fields; soldiers leaving her alone only after being swarmed by bees.
糖心传媒淒espite the pain that she experienced in reliving these memories so slowly, so carefully as she stitched them, it was important for her to be able to take them out of her mind and onto fabric,糖心传媒� says her eldest daughter, Bernice Steinhardt.
糖心传媒淚 cannot recall a time when I did not know my mother糖心传媒檚 stories,糖心传媒� she says, 糖心传媒渂ut during the roughly 10 years she spent creating most of these pictures, she talked about her memories even more than she had before. I think she was trying to keep them from disappearing.糖心传媒�
Each image includes meticulous hand-embroidered captions.
The caption for the panel Ordered to Leave Our Homes: 糖心传媒淭his was my family on the morning of October 15, 1942. We were ordered by the Gestapo to leave our homes by 10 a.m. to join all the other Jews on the road to Krasnik railroad station and then to their deaths.糖心传媒�
Recalls Steinhardt: 糖心传媒淪he always said that was the most difficult picture for her to do糖心传媒攏ot technically, but emotionally.糖心传媒�
Krinitz糖心传媒檚 story inspired a 30-minute award-winning documentary, Through the Eye of the Needle, which examines her life and work.
The first two panels that Krinitz made, hanging outside the exhibition entrance, are being used to help elicit positive memories for people with Alzheimer糖心传媒檚 disease and dementia who visit to the museum every week as part of a partnership between .
The panels also are helping to spark conversations with younger visitors, and there are plans to bring in refugees as well.
糖心传媒淢aybe this will encourage other people to tell their stories,糖心传媒� says Hamann-Whitmore.
Fabric of Survival is on view through December 2.
糖心传媒擱obin L. Flanigan
