Lilli Gettinger
Lilli Gettinger (1920-1999) fled Nazi Germany in 1938, eventually settling in the Princeton region. Her polychrome relief sculptures and pastel drawings, which reference the terrors of the concentration camps, as well as her own harrowing escape from Germany, are intermingled with allusions to literature, music and the Bible. Gettinger's work is a reflection of our common humanity: by choosing the positive forces of love and beauty to transform our own lives and memories, we can triumph over the forces of destruction.
Born in Berlin in 1920 to Polish Jewish parents, Gettinger was forced to leave her home when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. After she joined a militant Zionist group as a teenager, Gettinger's parents sent her to boarding school in Florence, Italy in 1936. She always harbored a love for art as a child and while in Florence her artistic talents thrived. Here she also met her first husband, a German Jew, in 1938. The couple married in Switzerland and then fled to Norway after anti-Jewish laws were passed. The two Jewish refugees traveled throughout Europe and finally sought refuge in Haiti before moving to New York City.
Once settled in the United States, Gettinger studied under famed cubist sculptor Alexander Archipenko. She would fill several drawing pads with sketches, but cast only a few sculptures while with him. From 1943-1948 Gettinger continued her education in drawing, stone carving, wood carving and casting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. She worked under sculptor Heinz Warnecke and had her first solo exhibition in 1952.
Over the years, Gettinger also had solo exhibitions at the Robert Horn Gallery in New York City, and group exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland; The Watkins Gallery at American University, Washington, D.C.; Trenton City Museum, Trenton, New Jersey; and her last exhibit, held at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, in Summit, New Jersey.
Dog Dogs
Dog Dogs, a sampling from an extensive series by American photojournalist Elliott Erwitt (b. 1928), includes over 60 black-and-white photographs taken around the world between the years 1946 and 2000. Erwitt sees the dignity of the ankle-high Chihuahua; the anxiety of the homeless hound; the patience of the pom-pommed poodle; and the matchless joy of the homely but well-loved pug. Organized by Magnum Paris and art2art Circulating Exhibitions, these acute observations of the canine world prove that human relationships with furry friends are often due to mutual resemblance and emotion.
Erwitt's images have appeared in such publications as Life, Look, Holiday and Collier's, as well as in the renowned 1955 Museum of Modern Art, New York exhibition The Family of Man. Born in Paris to Russian parents, Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan, then emigrated to the United States via France, with his family in 1939. As a teenager living in Hollywood, he developed an interest in photography and worked in a commercial darkroom before experimenting with photography at Los Angeles City College. In 1948 he moved to New York City and completed his formal education through film classes at the New School for Social Research. After service in the United States Army as a photographic assistant, Erwitt joined the prestigious Magnum Photos agency in 1953 with such famed photographers as Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker. Over the years, Erwitt has published numerous books as well as feature films, television commercials and documentaries, but he is probably best-known for his candid photographs of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings.
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