From April 21–Sept. 3 on the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, for the primary time ever, all 63 drawings that served because the maquette for Si Lewen’s 1957 graphic novel The Parade will likely be on view. This long-overlooked physique of labor debuted almost seven a long time in the past and stays related to today, as its wordless narrative explores the cycle of recurring battle. The ebook is an epic of anti-authoritarian concepts, first printed in 1957 on the tail finish of Joseph McCarthy’s Crimson Scare assault of democracy. The drawing model combines the polemical aesthetic of Weimar German graphic commentary with a youngsters’s ebook sensibility. Darkish and foreboding, it speaks to the manipulation of the plenty and mob. It addresses mobilization as manipulation. Sadly, greater than a half-century later, it underscores the battle that rages in Ukraine.
A Polish Jewish refugee, Lewen grew up in Germany, the place he noticed the political and cultural upheaval taking place round him. In 1933, when Hitler got here to energy, Lewen fled to France together with his brother and later immigrated to the USA, enlisting within the U.S. Military and becoming a member of an elite unit of German-speaking particular forces known as “The Ritchie Boys.” He noticed motion in Normandy and visited the Buchenwald focus camp shortly after its liberation in 1945; he was devastated by the atrocities of the Holocaust.
After returning to America, Lewen resumed his artwork in an effort to heal from his trauma. Accomplished round 1950 and printed in 1957, The Parade was the end result of this section of his work. Though Lewen remodeled his private reminiscences into these drawings, he knew they may not specific the real-life terrors he witnessed. He requested, “Did I succeed? Can others now see what I noticed? The reply is ‘no.’ Regardless of how nicely articulated or skillfully created, ‘horror,’ as an example, means little besides to those that have additionally skilled it.” The ebook, which at this time is little remembered, acquired quite a few accolades when it was printed. Via his gallerist Lotte Jacobi, Lewen despatched an early mock-up of The Parade to Albert Einstein shortly after it was accomplished. Einstein wrote to Lewen, “I discover your work, The Parade, very spectacular from a purely creative standpoint. … It has usually been stated that artwork shouldn’t be used to serve any political or in any other case sensible targets. However I might by no means agree with this perspective. Our time wants you and your work!”
All drawings: The Parade, ca. 1950. Crayon, ink, paint and graphite on gessoed board. Picture: 12×18 in. (30.5×45.7 cm). Sheet: 14×20 in. (35.6×50.8 cm). Assortment of the Worldwide Institute for Restorative Practices
