oha 2012

Primo Levi with small agitated Arrrgh! fish

Art: 2012
Media: Ink, gouache, colored pencil, collaged-on drawings from sketchbooks dating back to 1972
Framed, 28 in. H x 30 w. Framed in a non-rectangular-shaped wood frame

The portrait of Levi was interpretatively drawn from a 1986 photo of Levi by London, England based photographer Jillian Edelstein.

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The old sketches include a portrait drawing of a girlfriend drawn in Champaign, Illinois, fall 1972; two birds sketched outdoors in W. Palm Beach, Florida, around 1990; and one of several gestural drawings I did – they were my first responses to the Shoah (Holocaust), drawn when I was a junior in college in Carbondale, Illinois, one day in 1976; that drawing, of a head, is at upper right. Others done that same day in 1976 are now part of the work Life and death

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The rectangular image, lower right, was drawn from a paper sardine can package I’d bought in Israel. The flying saucer and birds, and other small beastie creatures on two lines to the immediate left of the sardine package imagery were drawn from sketches I did in fall (autumn) 1972, if my memory serves, date wise, for a proposed artwork on a history of the world. (I have those sketches in my studio).
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The vertical rectangular image seen on viewer’s right of Levi’s face was drawn from a postcard I’d gotten somewhere, years ago, of a black & white photo of the infamous entryway gate at the Auschwitz death camp, with the signage Arbeit macht frei (works means freedom)
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Below that, in a circular image area in color: I forget what manuscript I had seen that inspired that section.
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The bird nose, reddish looking “moustache” and plastic eyeglasses were drawn from a clopity clop chicken toy given to me by a girlfriend in Missouri. That toy was also depicted in a detail image of the toy’s face: Spiegelmann’ing my luftmensch life (see Other Holocaust Art, 2003); and the whole toy was drawn in UTW 48: Italian Jewish resistance hero Eugenio Curiel (see Under the Wings gallery).

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A 26 min. video about the 1972 History-of-the-world sketches and how they were used as inspiration for newly drawn sections of the Levi with Arrrrrgh! fish artwork: Using 1972 History of Earth sketches in 2012 Primo Levi art by A.K. Segan © / music: Steve Arntson

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Levi, an Italian Jewish chemist, was a prisoner/slave laborer at an I.G. Farben factory in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and concentration camp complex.

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After the war he became a celebrated writer of non-fiction (about the Holocaust, e.g. The Drowned and the Saved); autobiographical writings of his Holocaust experiences (If This Is a Man; Moments of Reprieve); The Periodic Table, which is a wonderful book of writings on his family background and Italian Jewish history in Turin, his student years, friends, his first love interest, his arrest as an anti-Fascist activist and more; poetry; sci-fi; and essays on art, literature, politics, etc. in The Mirror Maker.

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Arrrrgh! is how I can audibly and noisily describe my response to the Holocaust: "I can't stand the Holocaust, even though I've been doing artistic portrayals, mainly of murdered victims, since 1991. And guest teaching about it since 1994.Were I taking my Drawing-for-Healing workshop, I'd draw an Arrrrgh! fish or something to convey my feelings of Arrrrrgh! re this sad, avoidable and senseless history. And as genocides continue on today, the need for tolerance education for young children is more critical and needed than ever."