Art Prints: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Art prints book - Awret 2

"Germans -- even these people -- have a respect for art," she says. "It's like you are some kind of magician."

She recalls vividly how the camp commander would sometimes bring official visitors to the art workshop: "He would say, 'These are our artists.' "

Irene adds that the very nature of artists will drive them to create, even in an oppressive environment.

"If you are a painter, you are very visual," she says. "You have visual experiences, and you want to express them. It can be something very good, or it can be very sad. I was very young, and I didn't think much of why I did these things. I see a child with sad eyes, so I want to do this."

Had she known at the time, though, what became of the women and children at Auschwitz -- how they were sent directly from the trains to gas chambers -- Irene wouldn't have painted their portraits.

"I couldn't have done it if I had known," she says plaintively. "Being a mother with children -- helpless -- it was the worst thing."

The pain of her Holocaust experience, however, and the pain of learning afterward of the millions of Jews who perished, isn't something she has chosen to explore overtly in her art, Irene says. But she is proud to help educate the public through her book about what transpired at Mechelen in those darkest days of World War II.

As for the future, she and Azriel are happy to simply continue making art, traveling when they can and enjoying time with their family and each other.

"One thing I've learned in my life," says Irene, "is not to plan a long time ahead."

They'll Have to Catch Me First by Irene Awret, published by the University of Wisconsin Press and Dryad Press of Takoma Park. $26.95. Available at local bookstores, by phone at 773-702-7000 or online

Awret - Arts Beat

Arts Beat
Portrait of a Holocaust Survivor
In a Nazi Camp in Belgium, Irene Awret Found Salvation in Art

By Jonathan Padget
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page C01

Alone in a Gestapo jail cell with blood-stained walls, Irene Spicker -- 21 and Jewish -- was terrified. She had fled her native Berlin in 1939 and managed to hide for several years in Belgium. But by 1943, the Nazi persecution of Jews was in full force, occupied Belgium was no longer a haven, and her captors were determined to learn from her the whereabouts of her father.

Spicker had decided she could brave the uncertain fate of Jews facing deportation to Auschwitz. (Only at the end of the war would the full story of mass extermination efforts emerge.) But she would not put her father, who was in hiding, at risk -- no matter the consequence.

And so she waited.

Spicker searched for some distraction to calm her fears. Luckily, the burgeoning artist still had her purse and the small sketchbook that she always carried. She proceeded to draw her left hand in careful detail.

It turned out to be a life-saving piece of art.

The Gestapo commander who arrived later to interrogate her was taken aback by the skillful drawing he found among her belongings. He abandoned his questioning and ordered her transferred to the transit camp at Mechelen -- halfway between Brussels and Antwerp -- where 25,000 Jews and several hundred Gypsies were processed before being shipped east to Auschwitz.

But instead of the short-term stay experienced by most detainees, Spicker would spend a year and a half at the Mechelen camp in 1943 and 1944. She was assigned to the art workshop, where a small group of prisoners painted cardboard identification signs, linen armbands and other posters and signs for the camp.

When the rudimentary tasks were done, Spicker was forced to paint portraits of Nazi officers. By choice -- and in secret -- she painted portraits of her fellow prisoners.

She also fell in love. Azriel Awret was another workshop artist, and he and Spicker married soon after Allied forces liberated Mechelen in September 1944.

Today, the Awrets live in Falls Church, where they each have home studios and still share a passion for the art that brought them together -- and helped them survive the Holocaust. Irene, 83, fills large canvases with bold, vivid brush strokes. Azriel, 93, sculpts wood, clay and metal.

Irene has produced so much work that the overflow has made its way onto Azriel's studio wall. "She has to pay rent for them," jokes her husband. Russian-born and reared in Belgium, he is quieter than his wife, who takes the lead in telling their story.

They were founding members of the Safed Artists' Colony in Israel, where they settled in 1949 and raised two children before relocating to Northern Virginia in the '70s. They've produced an array of public art, including ceramic murals at several Montgomery County schools, and Azriel's sculptures adorn George Mason University's campus.

Irene has also written a book, "They'll Have to Catch Me First," about her harrowing experiences during the Third Reich. It serves not only as a deeply intimate memoir, but also as a landmark historical account of Mechelen's role in the Holocaust. Irene decided to write the book -- which included traveling throughout the world to interview other Mechelen survivors -- about 10 years ago when she met a young Belgian scholar from Mechelen (also known by the French name Malines) who had no idea that the transit camp existed.

The book also features art by the Awrets and other Mechelen prisoners. Irene managed to salvage some of the work after the camp's liberation. The Awrets have long since donated it all to museums. The work is dominated, not surprisingly, by stark images of men, women and children who never returned from the transports to Auschwitz.

Portrait of a Holocaust Survivor

Hard though it may be to comprehend that art existed in such circumstances, Irene says she understands.

"Germans -- even these people -- have a respect for art," she says. "It's like you are some kind of magician."

She recalls vividly how the camp commander would sometimes bring official visitors to the art workshop: "He would say, 'These are our artists.' "

Irene adds that the very nature of artists will drive them to create, even in an oppressive environment.

Had she known at the time, though, what became of the women and children at Auschwitz -- how they were sent directly from the trains to gas chambers -- Irene wouldn't have painted their portraits.

"I couldn't have done it if I had known," she says plaintively. "Being a mother with children -- helpless -- it was the worst thing."

As for the future, she and Azriel are happy to simply continue making art, traveling when they can and enjoying time with their family and each other.

"One thing I've learned in my life," says Irene, "is not to plan a long time ahead."

George Mason Is Home to Art of Azriel and Irene Awret

Mason Art

May 28, 2004

George Mason Is Home to Art of Azriel and Irene Awret

By Robin Herron

Prominently displayed on the plaza between Mason Hall and the Center for the Arts, the bronze sculpture Communitas by artist Azriel Awret has become a centerpiece of sorts for George Mason, embodying its community spirit.

Communitas
Photo by Evan Cantwell

In fact, the university owns seven works by Awret and his wife, Irene. Both are international artists and survivors of the Mechelen, Belgium, Gestapo camp during World War II.

Azriel Awret's five sculptures at George Mason were commissioned by his brother Charles for the university. Charles Awret, who was president of Maywood Building Corporation in Springfield, Va., until his death in 1996, was a friend of Randolph Church, a member of the George Mason Board of Visitors from 1982 to 1990 and rector from 1983 to 1986. Church and his wife, Lucy, introduced the Awrets to George Mason and made arrangements for the commissioning of the sculptures.

Woman in a Hammock

Communitas was the third of Awret's bronze sculptures to be installed on the Fairfax Campus. It was placed in 1992. The first was Woman in Hammock (1987), which is in the outdoor passageway between Robinson Hall A and B; then came The Cello Player and Two Musicians (1990), which are both in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall Lobby. Finally, The Marionette Master (1996), was placed near Cross Cottage and Mason Pond and dedicated in memory of Charles Awret.

The Cello Player

The George Mason Fund for the Arts, through the gifts of Arts Gala patrons, underwrote the site work and installation of the sculptures. The Fund and the Arts Gala Committee were founded and chaired by Joanne Johnson, wife of George W. Johnson, now George Mason President Emeritus. According to Randolph Church, Joanne Johnson was enthusiastic about the prospect of adding significant original bronze sculptures to the emerging campus, and the two worked with Azriel Awret to select themes that would be appropriate for selected sites at the university. The Churches and the Johnsons visited with the sculptor at his studio on many occasions during his work.

Two Musicians

Born in Lodz, Poland, in 1910, Azriel Awret studied art in Ghent, Belgium. While interned at Mechelen, he met Irene Spicker, a native of Berlin. They were both assigned to the art workshop at the camp. After the war, they married and settled in Israel, where they helped form the Safed Artists' Colony. They later established a home in Falls Church, Va., where they currently live.

In addition to sculpting, Azriel Awret has also painted and worked in ceramics. His art is in many private collections as well as those of the Milwaukee Art Institute and the Museum of Modern Art in Haifa, Israel. In this region, his installations include several in Maryland: two bronze fountains at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda; the bronze "Bear with Cub" at the Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Silver Spring; and outdoor bronzes at the Dalsheimer Youth Center in Baltimore. His art is also on display at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington and the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.

The Marionette Master
Photos by Evan Cantwell

Irene Awret, a painter and ceramicist, studied art in Brussels, Belgium. She has collaborated with her husband on a number of ceramic murals installed in schools in the Washington, D.C., area. She also painted a watercolor of the Center for the Arts for the 1989 Arts Gala poster, which can still be seen in several offices on campus; the original watercolor is located in Mason Hall. Another work, a print of doves, is displayed in President Alan Merten's office reception area.

The Awrets

Azriel and Irene Awret with Irene's painting for the 1989 Arts Gala poster.
Photo by Steve Tuttle

Irene Awret's artwork is in numerous collections in the United States and abroad, including the Mechelen Museum of Deportation and the Resistance and the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum in Israel, where many of her sketches and paintings of camp detainees are displayed. Last month, her book, They'll Have to Catch Me First: An Artist's Coming of Age in the Third Reich, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press and Dryad Press and has been added to the University Libraries' Special Collections and Archives. An article about Irene Awret and her book appeared in the Washington Post Style section yesterday.

The Churches have continued their relationship with George Mason. Among other activities, Lucy Church is a trustee of the George Mason University Foundation, and Randolph Church is a trustee emeritus. Looking back on the addition of the Awret art to the university collection, Randolph Church says, "The somewhat unlikely coming together of Charles, Azriel, and Irene Awret and George Mason University was another of those fortuitous intersections of time, place, talent, and opportunity that have so often stirred and enriched the life and development of this institution."

Art prints book - Awret

Shimmering in the Dark: The Art of Irene Awret

This exhibition celebrates the publication of Irene Awret's memoir, They'll Have to Catch Me First: An Artist's Coming of Age in the Third Reich, recently published by Dryad Press and the University of Wisconsin Press. Known widely in Israel for her paintings, ceramic sculptures and, with her husband Azriel, ceramic murals, she has had many solo shows in Israel and the United States. The Awrets helped found the Safad Artists' Colony in Israel. Since 1968, they have lived and worked in Fairfax, Virginia. This exhibition is co-sponsored by the Fall for the Book festival.

Exhibition Dates:
August 30, 2004—September 23, 2004
Johnson Center Gallery

Monday, September 20th:
Artist's Talk 4:30 pm, Harris Theatre
Reception 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Johnson Center Gallery