So much of my art is influenced by music and those who write and perform. Arguably one of the greatest song-writing partnerships in my life-time is Lennon and McCartney and, as I mentioned in the last blog, in the build up to Christmas I watched the 8 hour film of the Beatles put together by Peter Jackson as they prepared for a new album which culminated in the famous roof top performance at the Apple Headquarters at Number Three Saville Row. This carefully constructed film from many more hours of footage threw a new light on the relationship between the band members at that stage in their careers in the early days of 1969. At last I have started painting again when the light is good and produced the following first efforts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney as they were at that time and hopefully will be able to finish them before the end of the month.
January 27th was Holocaust Memorial Day and we heard that the Prince of Wales had commissioned seven portraits of Holocaust survivors for the Royal Collection in the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace as a permanent reminder to the country of the lives of those who had suffered during the second world war. Their stories were told in a programme on BBC 2 television and three of these superb portrait paintings are shown below with full credits.
Anita Laskar-Wallfisch who is now 97 was saved by her musical talent as a cellist and played in the Womens orchestra in Auschwitz. After being liberated she moved to the United Kingdom after the war, married, had two children and was a co-founder of the English Chamber Orchestra in 1952.
Helen Aronson was born in Poland in 1927 and in 1942 taken to the Lodz ghetto there where many of the residents died of starvation. She avoided deportation to Auschwitz and after the war moved to London, married and today has two daughters and two grandchildren. She is shown in the portrait with a silver powder compact given to her as a birthday present by her brother in 1944 which is her most treasured possession.
Zigi Shipper grew up in Poland in the 1930’s and at the age of ten was interned in a ghetto by the Germans. He was then sent to Auschwitz where his hair was shaved off and he was given a striped shirt with a number on it. Towards the end of this period he was forced to walk long distances, became weak, contracted typhus and was hospitalised for a long period.
I’ve spent sometime during my retirement researching the art and music of the holocaust and in particular the composers and other artistic people linked with Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Some years ago I created a collage as my own tribute to those millions of Jews who suffered, died and somehow survived the Holocaust.
I had hoped to complete the first two portraits of Lennon and McCartney by the time I finished this blog but time has been limited. However, they are well on the way and should be finished next month.