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Raoul Wallenberg inspiring Artistes

Raoul Wallenberg has inspired for years artists in music and pictural art around the world.

Fereshteh Fazeli

Has made a painting for “Why Raoul Wallenberg Matters”, Judisk Krönika, May 2007

Hanalisa

Has made several paintings and schetches drafts about the war in Budapest. See more…

Paul Lancz

Lancz, 76, avoided deportation to the Nazi death camps at least in part because of diplomat Raoul Wallenberg’s courageous initiative.

He began carving at the age of twelve and later studied at the Budapest School of Fine Arts. For three years he worked with Professor Kisfaludy Szigmond, noted Hungarian sculptor. Lancz came to Canada with his wife in 1956. (more about Paul Lancz).

Vardi:

The Israeli painter Yehuda Vardi had gained name and recognition in his home country for his soft, colorful portraits of beautiful women. Portraying Wallenberg reveals a work unprecedented in his oeuvre; a treasure of monumental paintings devoted to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of thousands of Jews in World War 2.

Born in Iraq, Vardi immigrated to Israel at the age of seven with his family, to settle first in a Kibbutz and later in Tel Aviv, where he studied art in University. He was a socially conscious artist, and upon reading about Wallenberg he came to see the Swedish diplomat as his hero. Mesmerized by the story of Wallenberg, the painter studied obsessively every book or document he could find about the savior of the Budapest Jewish community.

His fascination was captured in a series of monumental paintings: 31 oil paintings on canvas of 2 x 3 meter (7 x 10 foot) and 3 x 3 meter (10 x 10 foot). The paintings portray Wallenberg himself, the Jewish victims of the holocaust, the martyrdom of children, Jewish men and women bearing the yellow star being deported to death camps, and more.

Vardi was 62 years old when he died in tragic circumstances in 1990.

Bernard Szajner:

a French contemporary artist, created a first piece of art as a homage to Raoul Wallenberg in 1982 when together with Karel Beer, an English musician, they composed the music forming a record named : Wallenberg/Budapest. Along with the music, a text narrates Wallenberg’s fate in a way that makes it impossible for the listener to understand the story. Fragments of the story can be perceived but only forming a blurred and intriguing picture. This poetic and symbolic treatment of the story of Raoul Wallenberg’s fate was used again in 2008 by Szajner when he decided to create a visual art piece. The piece consists of the entire story forming the core of Raoul Wallenberg’s life (including his youth) cut out, letter by letter, the letters being pierced and assembled by a thread, forming a vertical story which can never be read. Four more visual pieces concerning Raoul Wallenberg are in progress as Szajner forms the project of creating an exhibition themed on the fate of Raoul Wallenberg that he describes as : “an example of and for humanity”.

More about his work….

Roses

Gyorgy Szilveszter, a rose breeder, who developed a special rose gave it the name of Raoul Wallenberg. http://rysroses.real-net.sk/

1 thought on “Raoul Wallenberg inspiring Artistes”

  1. The events of the Wallenberg Centenary were taken place in Budapest, 2012. Due to the effect of the monumental celebrations and the innumerable events the idea of the Wallenberg-Dombrovszky Commemorative Plaque programme raised in us. It was that very moment when we decided to commemorate with a memorial to the special some hours’ time when (among the given circumstances almost bizarre and extraordinary) László Dombrovszky met Raoul Wallenberg who sat as a model to the artist and he painted the only, unique authentic, credible portrait of him in 1944, Budapest
    About the history of the portrait that is in Washington, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: https://wallenberg-dombrovszky.com/portre-tortenet/en
    The painting: https://wallenberg-dombrovszky.com/portre-kep/hu#

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