The Family Painting

Born 16/08/1919 in Lvov, Poland. Died 16/02/2004 in the UK. 20th Century Austrian Expressionist. "Out of the ghost haunted mists of my childhood grew a desire to find out and a firm conviction that, with supreme but glorious effort, it would be possible to reach The Truth, and that conviction, nourished by legends and fairytales, stayed with me." "My aim as a painter is to oppose what I consider the sterile, introspective modernism characterising contemporary painting, and to rise, as far as I may be able, to the challenge this age of disintegrating cultures poses to creative artists." C.V. He was born, schooled, tested Accepted, rejected Loved, hated Celebrated, mocked He searched the maps They put before him For a way. For ways there must be, But they proved deceitful And made him doubt All maps and those Who make a living By devising guides Out of our miseries. He ends by putting documentary evidence In readiness For his heirs (Alfred Nussbaum, August 1996) INFLUENCES: Friedrich Nietzsche Karl BarthSoren Kirkegaard The Holocaust (family members died in Auschwitz and Dachau) The New Testament Socialism Science and Mathematics