Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1988. január-június (42. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1988-06-16 / 24. szám
Thursday, June 16. 1988. 11. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO ÁmÉRICAh HÜVIGARiAhS Henry Wilton: People’s artists win recognition BY CHARLES KELLER The current decade in the art world is seeing a floodtide of exhibitions in full historic perspective, a belated recognition of the art of the Great Depression years, the '30s and early '40s, in galleries and museums throughout the country. Ironically, the most comprehensive and best documented of these were assembled in two giant shows, "Dream and Depression" and "The Other America," in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980-1983 ("The Other America" is still travelling around Europe.) SOCIAL CONCERN IN PRINTS: Exhibition by Harry Gottlieb / Riva Helfond. At Sragow Gallery, 436 East 11th St., New York City. Wednesday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m., through May IS. One of the small but significant shows focusing on this era is the current Harry Gottlieb/ Riva Helfond exhibition of paintings, prints and drawings. "Financed" by the federal government through the FAP/ VVPA program for unemployed artists, the theme of both artists was the human condition. They refresh our memory of those terrible times; sweatshops, coal mines, factories, fishermen, and the war against fascism were their subjects. They were there and recorded it all in the sometimes romantic but mostly starkly patterned styles inspired by Mexico's Orozco and Rivera. Most of Riva Helfond's works are lithographs (prints pressed on paper from the image inked on a smooth stone). Pushing 80 and still vigorous, Helfond paints and teaches in New Jersey. Like Gottlieb, her works are in major museums and collections throughout the country. Most of Gottlieb's works here are se- rigraphs (silkscreens), a printing technique he pioneered with five other artists on Going to Work, 1941, serigraph. By Harry Gottlieb. Syracuse University Art Collections. the WPA art project. It is a technique done by pressing the colors through stencils adhered to nylon screens. In editions of 50 or more Gottlieb used six to 10 colors for each print. Gottlieb, 94, embodies a living chapter in the history of social art in America. Always an activist for peace, civil rights, and for artists' welfare, he helped organize the Artists Union, the Artists League of America, NY Artists Equity Assn., and the American Artists Congress during the Depression and the periods of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. After demonstrating the new art of "silkscreen" printmaking at the New York World's Fair in 1939, he toured the art school and college circuit popularizing the "boon to art for the people," the serigraph. The San Francisco-based Levi Strauss firm, the world's largest jeans and denim clothing manufacturer, is to set up its first joint venture in Hungary. The Levi Strauss (Budapest) Ltd. was founded with an equity of 75 million forints, of which the American firm holds 50.6 per cent. The new joint venture leases a plant from the Knitwear Factory of Kiskunhalas, which it is to equip with modern foreign sewing machines. Other Hungarian enterprises will also produce for the new firm. Production of jeans, shirts, pullovers, leisure clothes and accessories began in May. HUNGARY TAPED! IPV Tourist Information Service Film and Video Distribution sells both VHS and Pal-NTSC-Secam videos and also 16 mm movies about Hungary, its regions, its folklore, its historic sights, its places of interest and its cultural events. Orders: IPV Film and Video Distribution, Budapest VI., Hajos u. 2b, H-1065. Tel: ^61)111-233. To the Editor On the destruction of Romanian villages by Ceausescu, this was started a couple of years ago in the Hungarian area. One of my cousins, who lived in my mother's house, in Livada, near Szatmar, was forced to give up his house and move into the city. His half-acre allowed him to produce much of their food and raise hogs for meat. Confined tö a small apartment in Szatmar, he lived less than a year. They forced him out of the village, 12 miles from Szatmar where he worked, by stopping the bus service to the villages. With few able to have cars he had no choice. Cordially John T. Gojack Please give this page to a friend! A PROPHESY ON ISRAEL m- A STATE OF LUXURY AND SLUMS To answer the last question first, there is no comparison at all. Today's Israel has wealthy sections where the people live in luxury and it has the slums, where people live in want, as second or third class citizens. As far as their supercilious, arrogant behavior towards the Arabs? The answer is there in the plain open for all to see. Now 25 years after its birth as a nation, Israel's continued existence is not assured, notwithstanding its most modern armaments, in tremendous quantities. In protracted Jewish-Arab struggle the I Jews may win battles, but they cannot 'win the war. The all-around disparities, ■ in every consideration of consequence, as well as today's and the foreseeable future's realities make that impossible. ISOLATION OF ISRAEL No mentality, no matter how infantile, could believe that the United States will go on forever sustaining Israel in all its needs: or even in its military needs. If Israel is to be viable, it must have at least the acquiescence if not the friendship of the Arab States that surround her. What the Jews of the world in general and Israel in particular need, is friends: what they can afford least to have is enemies. Yet, the reality is, that the behavior of the Jewish leaders led to the total isolation of Israel. Realism compels me, to view even what today appears as "solid" U.S. support as an uncertain quantity, and transient, if indeed more than ephemeral. LEADERSHIP SHOULD BE REPLACED It is felt among many of us, that the objective conditions surrounding Israel today demand, in Israel's best interest, that the entire leadership of Israel be replaced, with a leadership that had nothing to do with the policies Israel pursued hitherto. It would be fallacious to believe that even a new leadership could accomplish now, that which could have been accomplished way, way back before the relationship between Arab and Jew became so aggravated. But there can be no doubt that an Israeli leadership that was in opposition to the supercilious conduct of the present government, a leadership that is dedicated to humanistic ideals, to the closest possible cooperation with the Arabs, on the basis of equality, would be able to negotiate a much more favorable agreement with the Arabs than those presently constituting the Israeli government. It is absolutely crucial that the Jews find the way to mend to whatever extent possible, their relationship with the Soviet Union. To think of it: it is truly ludicrous; even the tremendous United States finds • it in its best interest to have a good working relationship with the Soviet Union, and at the same time, the Jewish leadership works as hard as they can, availing themselves of every opportunities, to antagonize the Soviet Union. One is set to wondering, do the Jews insist upon being their own worst enemies? (Last installment)
