Arbit Blatas

The Holocaust Memorial, Venice, 1979

Arbit Blatas (born November 19, 1908 in Kaunas , † April 27, 1999 in New York City ), born Nicolai Arbitblatas , was a painter, graphic artist, set designer and sculptor of Lithuanian-Jewish origin.

Arbit Blatas is known by several names. His surname can be found in the literature as both Blatas and Arbitblatas, very rarely also in the spelling Blato , Blat etc. His first name Nicolai is often given in the variants Nechemija , Neemiya , Neemija or Hebrew Nehemiah , in combination with both Surname variants.

Life

Arbit Blatas was born into a wealthy family in what is now Lithuania , who fled to Ukraine during World War I. There Blatas spent seven years in a boarding school in Poltava , where he was interested in art. He returned with his family to Kaunas in 1922, where his father opened a shop selling musical instruments. During his studies at the Jewish high school there , his art teacher Jacob Messenblum encouraged him to combine his interest in art with an art degree. At the age of fifteen he exhibited a small number of his works in Kaunas. Blatas studied briefly in Germany and moved to Paris in 1928, where he became the youngest member of the Paris avant-garde school, which included artists such as Picasso , Matisse , Braque , Vlaminck and others. Here he took the name Arbit Blatas (later often just Blatas). He exhibited regularly in the Salon D'Automne as well as in the Salon des Tuileries. In the 1930s, Arbit Blatas continued to be an important force in modern French art. In 1934 the first exhibition of his works took place in New York.

When the war broke out, Blatas left Europe and settled in New York in 1941. So he escaped the Holocaust; his mother died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , his father survived his imprisonment in the Dachau concentration camp , but died soon after the end of the war. Blatas was later granted US citizenship. After the war, Blatas lived and worked in New York, Paris, Nice and Venice. In 1975 Blatas married the mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik and worked with her in the field of stage and costume design, especially when she also took on the role of director. Together they created productions of Carmen, Falstaff, Pique Dame, Salome and Elektra for many of the major opera houses around the world.

Blatas was a member of the Société du Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries and Officier de la Légion d'Honneur (1978); he received the gold medal of the city of Venice.

Works

Many of his works, especially pictures from the Paris period ("School of Paris"), which he painted during his time in Paris in the 1930s, are in prestigious collections such as the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC , the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Jeu de Paume and the Musée Georges Pompidou, Paris, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Venice and the Jerusalem Museum and Tel-Aviv Museum, Israel, represented among others

Blata's later works dealt with the problem of the Holocaust . He was particularly influenced by the fate of his parents, and he dedicated his pictures and especially his famous sculptures to the victims of the Holocaust. The following are listed among the most important works in this area:

• the painting Babi Yar from the 1940s
• the Holocaust memorial , seven sculptures, in Venice, 1980
• the plastic The last train (The Last Train), in Venice, 1990 (Painting 1980)

Simultaneously with his work on the "Holocaust Memorial" in Venice, Blatas received a commission from NBC in 1978 for drawings for the American mini-television series Holocaust with Meryl Streep in one of the leading roles. These drawings formed the basis for the monument in Venice.

Babi Yar

In 1944 the painting was Babi Yar , with the Blatas on one of the darkest episodes of the Nazi war crimes responded: Within two days (29 and 30 September 1941) 34,000 Jews were in one as Babi Yar known suburb ravine near Kiev brought and systematically shot with machine guns. Later, at the same time as he was working on the "Holocaust Memorial" in Venice, Blatas received a contract from NBC in 1978 for drawings for the American mini-television series Holocaust with Meryl Streep in one of the leading roles. These drawings, which also included a new drawing by Babi Yar, formed the basis for the Holocaust memorial in Venice.

Holocaust Memorial

Blata's perhaps most famous work of art is his magnificent sculpture, consisting of seven bronze plaques entitled "Monument of the Holocaust", Venice, 1979. His black and white drawings, which recall the harrowing events of that time, appeared in the American television series in 1978 " Holocaust". The drawings formed the basis for a memorial consisting of seven bas-reliefs known as the Holocaust Memorial.

The original work has been in Venice since 1980, in the local Jewish ghetto. One copy of the work was exhibited on April 23, 1981 in the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu in Paris, another was then on April 25, 1982 by the Anti-Defamation League opposite the United Nations building in New York on the One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza ; the last copy has been in Kaunas, Lithuania since 2004 at the suggestion of Blatas' widow, Regina Resnik.

The last train

Plastic "The Last Train", Venice, 1989

Another monument, the sculpture The Last Train , was dedicated by Blatas to the city of Venice in 1989. This sculpture is on the wall of the old people's home of the local Jewish community from 1890. It is also made of bronze. It is striking that Blatas deliberately only hinted at the whole scene, especially the faces of the victims. In the background, behind a grille, there are wooden beams, which gives the impression of looking at a freight train that brought the Jews from Venice to their deaths. The first and last names and the age of all victims are engraved in the wood.

Awards

• Member of the Société du Salon d'Automne
• Officer and knight of the Légion d'honneur
• Commander of the Order for Services to Lithuania

and other.

Remarks

1. ↑ The origin of the first painting is given both as 1944 and 1949.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Arbit Blato Biografija , website of the Lietuvos dailės muziejaus Museum (Vilnius, Lithuania), online at: old.ldm.lt / ...
2. ↑ ^{a b} Arbit Blat Neemija , portal of the Nowy Wirtualny Sztetl project , published by the Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN , online at: sztetl.org.pl / ...
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Neemiya Arbit Blatas , portal of Lietuvos išeivijos dailės fondas (Lithuanian Expatriate Art Foundation, Vilnius, Lithuania), online at: iseivijosdaile.lt / ...
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Arbit Blatas, Biography , short résumé of the Manhattan Art Group portal , online at: manhattanartgroup.com / ...
5. ↑ Regina Resnik , CV on Jewish Women's Archive , online at: jwa.org/encyclopedia / ...
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Arbit Blatas: Centennial Tribute , review of an exhibition in: Online newspaper Jewish Press , online at: jewishpress.com / ...
7. ↑ Website about the artist and his work from different periods, here: stage and costume design, online at: Stage design
8. ↑ Monument to Holocaust Victims , report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on the occasion of the exhibition of the seven sculptures “Monument of the Holocaust” in New York on Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, online at: jta.org / ...
9. ↑ Website about the artist and his work from different periods, including images of: paintings / lithographs / drawings etc. of the Paris School, operas, The Threepenny Opera, landscapes, portraits etc., online at: Artworks , including especially School of Paris
10. ↑ ^{a b} This is how the TV series “Holocaust” came about - a very special making-of , short report on the TV series “Holocaust”, Göttinger Tageblatt, January 16, 2019, online at: goettinger-tageblatt.de/ .. .
11. ↑ ^{a b} Memorial Ghetto de Venise. Le monument de l'holocauste. Arbit Blatas , brief description and illustration of the individual sculptures, blog-like website of the Montmartre secret portal , online at: montmartre-secret.com / ... (French)
12. ↑ ^{a b c} The signs of memory: The Shoah in Venice , portal of city guides in Venice, online at: bestveniceguides.it / ...
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Moving Pictures , article by the Jewish daily magazine Tablet , a project by Nextbook Press, online at: tabletmag.com / ...
14. ↑ Arbit Blatas , curriculum vitae in the AskART database , online at: askart.com / ... (restricted access)
15. ↑ Monument of the Holocaust , Arbit Blatas website, online at: arbitblatas.net / ...
16. ↑ Honors , online at: arbitblatas.net / ...

Web links

• Arbit Blatas website with numerous references to exhibitions, awards, etc.