OHA 2019

Praga – the Round synagogue, Warsaw, 1836 – 1961

Art: Begun 2014; completed 2019. The mat areas were artified on July 14, 2019.
Media: Ink, gouache, crayons; 2 postage stamps from Israel; 5 postage stamps from Poland; 3 airmail stickers from Poland: LOTNICZA – PAR AVION; 3 pieces cut from the mailing side of a postcard I’d written in Krakow, 1984 and had mailed my folks in NY.
Size: 8 5/8 inches H x 12 [22.2 cm. H x 30.4 cm W]
Framed size: 16 1/4 inches H x 19 1/4 W [41 cm. H x 48.8 cm. W]

Praga synagogue, 4 Petersburska St, now ul. Jagiellonska 28, 1836-1961.

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The drawing of the synagogue was inspired by 3 photos I saw on the internet. One is an interior view; the other 2 are exterior views. The synagogue was built in 1836 and demolished in 1961. It was in the Praga district of Warsaw (not in the Jewish district that became the ghetto concentration-death camp during the Nazi occupation).

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Nonetheless it was remarkable that the building survived WWII, as so many of Warsaw's buildings were destroyed.

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Of the Praga synagogue: One internet website page (that I looked at on Oct. 13, 2014) states there were few (if any) Jews in the Praga district after 1945; and, having fallen into disrepair, the synagogue was demolished in 1961.

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The coloration of a Witold Witkiewicz portrait influenced my choice of coloration of the sky in the Praga synagogue drawing: A 2 min., 44 sec. video of the drawing includes a view of book plate, ca. 1920, pastel portrait by the Polish artist Witold Ignacy Witkiewicz: Portret Teofila Trzcinskiego I (1920). This video shows the drawing as it looked between when I made it in 2014 and how it looks ‘til July 14, 2019. (On July 14, 2019 I artified the heretofore nearly bare mat and I added more color in the sky area above and to the sides of the building).

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Thanks to Scottish artist Mat Fahrenholz, now in Warsaw, for a copy of a book of Witkiewicz art that he got me in a barter we did. I’d first seen Witkiewicz's art in the 19th C. Cloth Hall Museum, Krakow, summer 1984, where I fell-in-love with Witkiewicz's drawings.

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The mat areas:

On the upper left and upper right, pieces of the mailing side of a postcard I'd penned in Krakow, July 28 '84 and had mailed my folks in NY. In the fragment I saved, seen at upper left, my ball point pen writing (to my folks) states:
“Leaving for 12 days in country on 1st August. Outdoors “en plein aire” painting-drawing session. Saw a circus in mountain resort town near Czech. border. Quite different.
One act included a woman spinning on round wooden board – fast – while someone threw flaming knives at her – such timing you wouldn’t believe – love, K”

At lower left: postage stamps from Israel, Poland. The Israel stamp is of [the town of] Zefat (otherwise spelled S’fad, or Safad, known for having a lot of artists with an artist’s studio/residence and gallery district).

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At lower right: An Israeli postage stamp (of James Ensor) from an envelope sent to me years ago by a first cousin of my mom's; the cousin lived in a working class district of Tel Aviv. Raised in Vilna, she had visited my great-grandmother at least twice in the 1930's, in Bialystok, Poland. My great-grandmother, Zlata Barsheswsky, has been portrayed in 3 artworks:
a) Under the Wings 42: Shoah Dreams
b) Zlata the Righteous of Bialystok & her son Liebl who lived in Berlin
c) Under the Wings 62: Zlata Barshewsky of Bialystok (mosaic-drawing combo)
Visit the artists new website (in progress, July 2019): www.humanrights-art.org

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Also at lower right: A Polish postage stamp portrait of Ignacy Paderewski (1860 - 1941). He was a well-known composer, pianist and had been a Prime Minister of Poland. He emigrated to the US. He was als philo-Semitic and was friendly and supportive of Jewish people, bardzo dobrze (very good!).

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The drawn color area at lower left, and on the bottom of the mat, were drawn from 2 different color plates ) inspired by photos of plates of the Kolonymous Bible, seen in the book "The Jews of Poland and Lithuania Up to the Middle of the 18th Century, in Paint, Stone and Parchment," pub. by Cygielman, in Jerusalem, 2004. Author: Shmuel A. Arthur Cygielman (ISBN 9659018711).

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The image at left, of a person riding on an animal, was drawn from a plate (page 124)
titled “Alas! The City is Forlorn! (Lam. 1:1).

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The image on the bottom mat area was drawn from a plate (page 19) titled “These are the words” (Deut. 1:1)
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Art © A. K. Segan

Praga synagoga Warszawa

synagogi Polska

architektura synagogi Polska

(round bldgs. Europe) okrągłe budynki Europa

bâtiments ronds en Europe