Boris Taslitzky (1911–2005), "un témoignage a une tres vielle amitié (in witness to a very old friendship),” 1945, pencil drawing.
:Through a series of fortunate occurrences, Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art was able to acquire a drawing by Boris Taslitzky (1911–2005), made while the artist was interned at Buchenwald concentration camp at the end of World War II. On November 4, John Copenhaver and Joel Fletcher donated the pencil drawing, "un témoignage a une tres vielle amitié (in witness to a very old friendship)," to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
While in Paris, Copenhaver and Fletcher were offered the drawing, along with a portfolio with works by artists who had been friends with the French artist Julien Outin. When Outin died, his heir decided to finally throw away a last portfolio from his studio, when she was too exhausted to continue. Fortunately, executor and banker Jean Nicolas discovered the portfolio and asked to show it to Copenhaver and Fletcher. He did, and they eagerly purchased it.
Among the number of works by Outin's friends, they discovered this 81/8-by-5½-inch drawing of an elderly man in an overcoat, sitting on a bench with just the heads of two other prisoners behind him.
Signed "Boris Taslitzky 45," it was reproduced in the album by Louis Aragon,
111 Drawings Made in Buchenwald, 1944–1945,
which was published in 2009 and contains the approximately 100 drawings and four watercolors Taslitzky was able to carry back to Paris with him when he was liberated.
Holocaust Museum Curator Kyra Schuster said, "We are incredibly honored to receive the drawing for our permanent collection." Many of the drawings Taslitzky made at Buchenwald are in the Museum of National Resistance, in a suburb of Paris. His works are found in major museums including the Pompidou Center, Paris, and Tate Gallery, London.
The museum
is at
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
.
For more information,
202
-
488-0400
or
www.ushmm.org
