oha 2012

Bonhoeffer der Jude, with a German-Austrian Protestant evangelical bishop-fish & a Reichskonkordat Roman Catholic bishop-fish. Joined by special guest appearances from Rudiger Schleicher (brother-in-law of Dietrich Bonhoeffer); Alexander Schwarz, late Viennese - Austrian Jewish refugee and American immigrant; a 1976 gestural ink drawing response (by the artist) to the Shoah; Mickey dans son déguisement résistance francaise; and Der Kaiser himself.

Evangelical Protestant bishop-fish and a Reichskonkordat Roman Catholic bishop-fish.
With special guest appearances by Rudiger Schleicher (brother-in-law of Dietrich Bonhoeffer); Alexander Schwarz, late Viennese - Austrian Jewish refugee and American immigrant; a 1976 gestural ink drawing response (by the artist) to the Shoah; Mickey dans son déguisement résistance francaise; and Der Kaiser himself.

Art: 2012; 2019
Framed, 38 ¼ inches H x 34 ¼ W [97.1 cm. H x 86.9 W]
Media: Ink, colored pencil, gouache; piece, a Star of David, of a 1990 linocut about Primo Levi; piece of a 1976 woodcut titled King David; 2000 linocut portrait of Alexander Schwarz.

Christentum und das Dritte Reich: Bonhoeffer der Jude, ein deutsch-österreichischer evangelischer Bischofsfisch und ein Reichskonkordat römisch-katholischer Bischofsfisch.

Mit besonderen Gastauftritten von Rudiger Schleicher (Schwager von Dietrich Bonhoeffer); Alexander Schwarz, Spätwiener - österreichischer jüdischer Flüchtling und amerikanischer Einwanderer; eine gestische Tuschezeichnung von 1976 (vom Künstler) auf die Shoah; Mickey dans son déguisement résistance francaise; und Der Kaiser himself.

Detail areas

The gestural expressionist black & white ink portrait, seen at viewers right of Bonhoeffer’s head, was one of 7 gestural expressive ink drawing responses I did on a sheet of paper in 1976 when I was a junior, majoring in art, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. One of the other of those gestural sketches is at upper right [see Other Holocaust Art, 2000’s], Primo Levi with small agitated Arrrrrgh! fish.The other 5 sketches of those 1976 ink sketches are in [see Other Holocaust Art, 2000’s] Death in the ghetto.

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Bottom left, ink portrait study of Rüdiger Schleicher, 1895-1945. A brother-in-law of Bonhoeffer, he was executed, along with 11 other prisoners including his brother-in-law Klaus Bonhoeffer, and his  (Schleicher’s) assistant Hans John, in a prison near Berlin, April 22, 1945.

Ink, pencil on paper. 6.5 inches H x 16 3/4 W [16.5 cm H x 42.5 W]. Drawn 2012.
[see Other Holocaust Art: 2017, Two Protestant resisters, in my website]
The pencil inscription below the portrait of Schleicher, Schopfung und fall, was a book title by Bonhoeffer. In English: Creation and Fall.

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Lower right, blue, linocut:
Alex Schwarz was a late Viennese Jewish refugee from Nazi Austria and American immigrant. He and his wife, Gertrude, who was a kinder transport survivor from Vienna to England, were friends of the artist in the 1990’s.

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The SS soldier – murderer, upper right, was drawn from a photo, plate 198, p. 188, captioned ‘Execution carried out by Einsatzgruppen in the occupied area of the Soviet Union during 1941/1942, in The Pictorial History of the Holocaust, pub. by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1990.

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The writing, lower right center, Judenblut vom messer spritz! is from Nazi Third Reich signage and graffiti. The full wordage, Wenn das Judenblut vom Messer spritzt ist Alles wieder gut, translates to English as When Jewish blood is spilled everything will be fine again.

An example of Third Reich newspaper text.

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Der Kaiser Himself. Kaiser Wilhelm II was born 1859, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia; he died in 1941 in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

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The French resistance and Mickey Mouse image, lower right:

The French resistance, and its problems, and criticism of it, of being too little, too late, was chronicled  a bit in the 1969 released epic two-part documentary, ‘The Sorrow and the Pity,’ directed by Marcel Ophüls (born 1927). Ophuls also directed the extraordinary (1988 released) documentary, ‘Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie.’

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and author, was born in 1906 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland).

He was executed on April 9, 1945, at Flossenbürg concentration camp, Germany.  American soldiers liberated the camp two weeks later; on May 8 the war in Europe ended with the surrender of the Third Reich.

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Also see: UTW 45 in the Under the Wings gallery.

[see Other Holocaust Art: 1999 two Alex Schwarz drawing portraits; a linoleum block print; and UTW 44: Kamil Hahn of Telc (a first cousin of Alex)]

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The SS soldier, upper right, was drawn from a photo, plate 198, p. 188, captioned ‘Execution carried out by Einsatzgruppen in the occupied area of the Soviet Union during 1941/1942, in The Pictorial History of the Holocaust, pub. by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1990.

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The writing, lower right center, Judenblut vom messer spritz! is from Nazi Third Reich signage and graffiti. The full wordage, Wenn das Judenblut vom Messer spritzt ist Alles wieder gut, translates to English as When Jewish blood is spilled everything will be fine again. An example of Third Reich newspaper text.

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The French resistance and Mickey Mouse image, lower right:
The French resistance, and its problems, and criticism of it, of being too little, too late, was chronicled  a bit in the 1969 released epic two-part documentary, ‘The Sorrow and the Pity,’ directed by Marcel Ophüls (born 1927). Ophuls also directed the extraordinary (1988 released) documentary, Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and author, was born in 1906 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland).
He was executed on April 9, 1945, at Flossenbürg concentration camp, Germany.  American soldiers liberated the camp two weeks later; on May 8 the war in Europe ended with the surrender of the Third Reich.

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Also see: UTW 45 in the Under the Wings gallery.