Alexander Bogen
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Alexander Bogen ( he, אלכסנדר בוגן; born 24 January 1916 – 20 October 2010) was a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
-
Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...
visual artist, a decorated leader of partisans during World War II, a key player in 20th century
Yiddish culture Yiddishkeit ( yi, ייִדישקייט ) literally means "Jewishness", i.e. "a Jewish way of life". It can refer to Judaism or forms of Orthodox Judaism when used by religious or Orthodox Jews. In a more general sense, it has come to mean the "Je ...
, and one of the trailblazers for art education and Artists' associations in the emerging state of Israel.


Biography

Alexander Bogen was born in
Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
, EstoniaInterview with Alexander Bogen, Survivor and Artist
Yad Vashem
and brought up in Wilno. As a young boy he adhered to the values of the
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
culture of
Yung Vilne Yung may refer to: * Yung (surname), Chinese surname * Yung Joc, (born Jasiel Robinson in 1983), an American rapper * Yung Wun, (born James Carlton Anderson in 1982), an American rapper * Yung Berg, (born Christian Ward in 1985), an American rapper ...
, as well as to the modern Polish culture. After completing his studies at the gymnasium, he was accepted to the Stefan Batory art academy affiliated with the
Wilno University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow a ...
, where he studied painting and sculpture. His parents were physicians. His father came from a secular family and his mother was the daughter of Rabbi Tuvia Lobitzki, the rabbi of
Wołkowysk Vawkavysk ( be, Ваўкавы́ск, ; russian: Волковы́ск; pl, Wołkowysk; lt, Valkaviskas; yi, וואלקאוויסק; names in other languages) is one of the oldest towns in southwestern Belarus and the capital of the Vawkavysk ...
, Poland. His studies were interrupted by World War II. Bogen joined the partisans and became a commander of the
Jewish partisan Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
unit in the
Narocz Lake Narach ( be, На́рач, ''Narač'' ; russian: На́рочь, ''Naročj''; lt, Narutis, pl, Narocz) is a lake in north-western Belarus (Myadzyel District, Minsk Region), located in the basin of the Viliya river. It is the largest lake ...
Forests. He buried many of the drawings he made at this time near Lake Narocz. He returned to the ghetto in September 1943 and helped to facilitate the rescue of members of the United Partisan Organization (FPO), a Jewish underground movement active in the ghetto and led by poet
Abba Kovner Abba Kovner ( he, אבא קובנר; 14 March 1918 – 25 September 1987) was a Polish Israeli poet, writer and partisan leader. In the Vilna Ghetto, his manifesto was the first time that a target of the Holocaust identified the German plan to ...
, Bogen's school friend. When the
Vilna Ghetto The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland. During the approximatel ...
was about to be destroyed, Bogen and his partisans tried to rescue some key people, one of whom was
Abraham Sutzkever Abraham Sutzkever ( yi, אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער, Avrom Sutskever; he, אברהם סוצקבר; July 15, 1913 – January 20, 2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet. ''The New York Times'' wrote that Sutzkever was "the greatest poet o ...
. With the help of the soviet partisans, they managed to finally smuggle him into Moscow along with some of Bogen's drawings, which were eventually exhibited in Moscow According to the "Russian State Archive of literature and art” (RGALI), he was head of the Department of Arts of the Lithuanian SSR from: 5 September 1944 - February 1945. After the war Bogen returned to his studies, finished his academic degree and was mastered as an artist of monumental painting at the USB Academy of Art in Vilna. In 1947, he taught as a professor at The
Academy of Fine Arts In Łódź The Academy of Fine Art in Łódź is a public university in Łódź for artists. Created in 1945, it was one of seven academies of Fine Arts in Poland. The academy was renamed in honor of one of its founders, Władysław Strzemiński, in 1988. T ...
and became a well-known artist, set designer and book illustrator. Alongside his recognition as a Polish Artist and war hero, receiving several accolades and awards as well as a large retrospective exhibition (Łódź State Museum, 1950) – Bogen was also very active in the resuscitation of the cultural life of the Jewish Community in post war Poland. In 1951, Bogen and his wife immigrated to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. During his time in Israel, Bogen continued his cultural and educational activities in the arts. In 1957 he initiated the art program in WIZO France – Ironi Yud-Dalet high school in Tel Aviv and lead it for 22 years. Bogen completed his academic studies of art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and was an art lecturer in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Bogen continued painting, drawing and sculpting until his death at the age of 94 in Tel Aviv on 20 October 2010. In July 2018, Mayor Ron Huldai, on behalf of the city of Tel Aviv, has inaugurated a Memorial plaque in Bogen's honor on the house where he lived and worked.


Resistance through art

Bogen continued to draw during the war, documenting what he saw:
"We saw abandoned children. We saw people being led to the slaughter. I did not lay down my pencil for a moment. An artist condemned to death portraying people condemned to extermination... I sketched the forest, my brothers-in-arms, the battle itself. There was no table. There were no paints. There was no paper. I found packing paper. I made ink from blueberries, fixer out of pulverized milk and burnt dry branches for charcoal for my sketches. I asked myself why I was drawing, when I was fighting day and night… This was something similar to biological continuation. Every man, every people, is interested in continuing his people, his family, in bringing children into the world for the future – in leaving this one thing. Another motivation was to get information to the so-called free world, but mostly Being creative during the Holocaust was also a show of protest - people facing brutal danger, facing death, react in their own different way. the artist's reaction is artistic. This is his weapon."


Selected solo exhibitions

* 1949 Municipal Museum, Breslau, Poland * 1950 Municipal Museum, Lodz, Poland * 1951 Yad-Lebanim Museum, Petach Tikva * 1956 Museum of Art, Ein-Harod * 1961 The Tel Aviv Museum of Art; *1961 Artists’ House, Haifa * 1962 Artists’ House, Jerusalem * 1962 St. Placide Gallery, Paris * 1963 Rider Gallery, Los Angeles; * 1963 Merkup Gallery, Mexico * 1975 Glezer Gallery, N.Y.; * 1975 Chelsea Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil * 1976 Yad-Lebanim Museum, Petach Tikva * 1979 Museum of Israel Art, Ramat-Gan * 1980 Artists’ House, Jerusalem; * 1980 Artists’ House, Tel Aviv; * 1980 Old Jaffa Gallery * 1981 Citè Internationale des Arts, Paris * 1984 Bat-Yam Museum, Bat Yam * 1985 Institute Francais, Tel Aviv; * 1985 Petach Tikva Museum, Israel * 1987 Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig * 1988 Museum Zons, Dormagen Neuss; * 1988 Kreishaus, Ludwigsburg * 1991 Artists’ House, Tel Aviv * 1992 State Gallery, Lodz * 1993 State Abakus Gallery, Warsaw * 1994 State Gallery, Kraków * 1995 Rathaus, Gerlingen, Germany; * 1996 Vesoul Museum, France * 1998 Beit Ariela Municipal Gallery, Tel Aviv * 2001 The Ghetto Fighters’ House museum, Kibbutz Lohamei Haghettaot, Israel * 2002 Alexander Bogen – Drawings for Poems in Yiddish, Reuben and Edith
Hecht Museum The Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum is a museum located on the grounds of the University of Haifa, Israel. History The Hecht Museum was established in 1984 by Reuben Hecht, director of Dagon Silos and a founding member of the University of Haifa ...
, University of Haifa * 2003 Drawing and painting Exhibition, Beit Shalom Halechem, Tel Aviv * 2005 Drawing and Painting Exhibition, Bar'Am Museum * 2009 Whitebox Gallery, Munich * 2010 Kreishaus, Ludwigsburg *2010 The Russian Institut, Tel Aviv An exhibition of Bogen's work was held at the
Hecht Museum The Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum is a museum located on the grounds of the University of Haifa, Israel. History The Hecht Museum was established in 1984 by Reuben Hecht, director of Dagon Silos and a founding member of the University of Haifa ...
in Haifa. His drawings, especially those that survived from his partisan days, offer a gallery of characters and document the history of a people fighting for its life during the Holocaust. Among the drawings on show were illustrations for poems by two Yiddish poets:
Gebirtig Mordechai Gebirtig ( yi, מרדכי געבירטיג), born Mordecai Bertig (4 May 1877 – 4 June 1942), was an influential Polish poet and songwriter of the interwar period. He was shot by Germans in the Kraków Ghetto, occupied Poland, during t ...
and
Abraham Sutzkever Abraham Sutzkever ( yi, אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער, Avrom Sutskever; he, אברהם סוצקבר; July 15, 1913 – January 20, 2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet. ''The New York Times'' wrote that Sutzkever was "the greatest poet o ...
.


Monuments and murals

* “Revolt” – Partisan Museum, Tel Aviv * “Holocaust” – Partisan Museum, Tel Aviv * Vitrage, Jabotinsky Institute, Tel Aviv * Vitrage, 14th Vocational High School, Kiryal Hachinuch, Tel Aviv * Memorial Monument, Commemorating the Holocaust and the Revolt, Latroun Museum, Jerusalem


Awards

* 1951 State Prize, Polish Government Prize * 1961 The Histadrut Prize, Israel * 1962 The Israel Ministry of Education & Culture Prize * 1980 Prize of the Sea League of Israel * 1982 The Negev Prize * 1993 Medal of the City of Vesoul, France * 1995 Shalom Aleichem Prize, Israel


See also


Official Website
* Visual arts in Israel
The Israel Museum, JerusalemAlexander Bogen Collection
at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.
"the Pen and the Sword"
- online exhibition from Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.


References


External links

* *
Alexander Bogen Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogen, Alexander Visual arts education 1916 births 2010 deaths Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Jewish painters Israeli illustrators Polish resistance members of World War II Jewish partisans Yiddish culture in Israel Yiddish culture in Poland Yiddish-language literature Abstract expressionist artists 20th-century Israeli painters 21st-century Israeli painters Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery Polish emigrants to Israel