THE SPECTATOR, SEATTLE UNIVERSITY
November 10, 1994. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, p. 6
(the article published on the front page, lower left)
Local artist gives Holocaust education through art
Jewish artist Kenneth Segan exhibits his series “Under the Wings of G-d”
by MICHELL MOUTON
Arts and Entertainment Editor
[in the center of the article: A photo of Under the Wings series no. 9, captioned: Ink drawing of two girls who died in the Warsaw ghetto by Kenneth Akiva Segan from the art series]
It is profound, intense, moving and real. The drawing series “Under the Wings of G-d,” by artist Kenneth Akiva Segan brings back to life the faces of those murdered during the Holocaust.
A Seattle artist, Segan’s work is exhibited worldwide. Museums in the United States and abroad have permanent collections of his work. After receiving his MFA at the University of Missouri, Segan studied in Poland during the summers of 1984 and 1985, where he found the inspiration for his current works.
“So much of Poland reflects the vanished Jewish communities of Europe, eastern Europe in particular,” he recalled. “There were five million Jews in Poland, there are only three or four thousand now. Much of what I saw, witnessed, observed and heard became etched in my mind’s vision.”
The exhibit showcases seven mixed-media drawings from the fifty-piece series at the Museum of History and Industry.
The works commemorate the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising.
The series, begun in 1991, is drawn from real life photographs of murdered Jewish children, women and men in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II and the Warsaw uprising in Poland.*
Making the series artistically and spiritually unique is his inclusion of wings on each of the figures he has drawn. In many of the drawings Segan uses the wings of birds.
“Through the wings I’ve given the people symbolic flight that they were denied in real life,” Segan said. “Adding wings, I think it gives people who view the work a sense of peace. People of different faiths and backgrounds can interpret it individually as they wish.”
Though reception to the work has been favorable, there are some who criticize his drawings.
While many people have found great solace in the winged figures, some have questioned why a Jewish artist would represent murdered Jews in what is commonly thought of as “Christian” imagery, he said.
“Some Holocaust survivors didn’t understand why I was doing the wings,” Segan said. “They saw it as a Christian sort of thing.”
Segan’s reason for creating “Jewish angels” rests on adjoining platforms of thought, belief, tradition and history. The first is the great number of angels in the Bible. The second is the vast quantity of Jewish folktales which have made their way into the written word after centuries of oral telling.
“The association that many make, that depicting angels is a Christian image, has nothing to do with the lack or abundance of angels in Jewish life,” he said.
“But in the proscriptions which prevented Jewish artists and artisans from portraying the human form over many centuries.”
The drawing series was created for Holocaust education, said Segan. He is currently adding more pieces to the series.
“I have a very clearly defined educational purpose in mind,” said Segan. “Educationally I wanted it to be accessible to children, adults and college students alike. The intention is to prevent another Holocaust.”
“Under the Wings of G-d,” will be on exhibit at The Museum of History and Industry until Nov. 13. The museum is located at 2700 24th Ave. E. For more information call 324-1126.
Segan invites students at Seattle University to view the entire series at his studio in Pioneer Square. For more information about the series or a viewing of the works, call Segan.
* historical note by the artist, while typing the text (on Aug. 31, 2020) of Ms. Mouton’s excellent article:
The Warsaw ghetto uprising was April – May 1943.
The Warsaw uprising was August - October 1944.