Anna Walinska
Survivors: Three Musicians (H-33)
1955
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Anna Walinska
Survivors: Three Musicians (H-33)
1955
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Unframed: 46 × 35 3/4 in. (116.8 × 90.8 cm.)
Framed: 47 1/4 × 37 1/8 × 1 5/8 in. (120 × 94.3 × 4.1 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rosina Rubin, New York
Object Number
2022.45
Brushstrokes in shades of black, white, and gray sketch out the intertwined forms of three musicians. This painting is part of Anna Walinska’s Survivors series that reflects on the Holocaust, the systematic persecution and genocide of millions, including six million Jewish people, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Walinska stated, “I felt the burden and couldn’t turn away from it…I was devastated by what I saw and read…My work illustrates the theme ‘Lest we forget.’” This painting may reference the orchestras formed of imprisoned musicians who were forced to play in Nazi concentration camps. It also evokes the music composed and performed by prisoners that expressed their humanity in inhumane conditions.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2022; Rosina Rubin (niece of the artist), New York, NY.
Museum of Religious Art, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, "Holocaust," New York City, October 23, 1979 to December 16, 1979.
Clark University Center for Holocaust Studies, "Anna Walinska, Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989," Worcester Massachusetts, November 1999 to April 2000, Circulated to Muzea Ghetta at the Pamatnik Terezin/Ghetto Museum at the Terezin Memorial, Thieresenstadt, Czech Republic, August 2000 to November 2000.
Clark University Center for Holocaust Studies, "Anna Walinska, Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989," Worcester Massachusetts, November 1999 to April 2000, Circulated to Muzea Ghetta at the Pamatnik Terezin/Ghetto Museum at the Terezin Memorial, Thieresenstadt, Czech Republic, August 2000 to November 2000.
"Holocaust," Museum of Religious Art, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, 1979. Brochure.
"Anna Walinska, Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989," Clark University's Center for Holocaust Studies, 1999-2000. Brochure. [Traveling exhibition, also on exhibit at The Onisaburo Gallery at the Interfaith Center of New York and the Muzeum Ghetta at the Pamatnik Terezin in the Czech Republic in 2000.]
"Atelier Anna Walinska Life and Art" website by founder Rosina Rubin, the artist's niece, which documents and promotes exhibitions of the modernist paintings, collages, and drawings created by her aunt:
https://walinska.art/collections/baltimore-museum-art/
Inscribed: Recto: Signature, lower left: "Walinska '56" and below, painted over: "Walinska ' 56" (artist's hand) Verso: Found on acidic cardboard (backing added at a later date): "#33" " 'Survivors' 1956 / Oil on canvas / 35 3/4 x 46" (ink, appears to be artist's hand) "Anna Walinska / 875 West End Ave / NYC, 10025" (ink, appears to be artist's hand) Verso: Found after cardboard was removed: Newspaper clipping attached to linen (this could be a patch of some kind) "36 [ANCO?] INC. / GLENDALE L L" (red stamp along bottom edge of frame) "35 3/4 x 46" (graphite) "Anna Walinska / '52" (black paint, appears to be artist's hand)
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