Relief Sculptures and Pastels Reference Terrors of the Holocaust in Lilli Gettinger: Memory Transformed at the Michener Art Museum

February 29, 2008

DOYLESTOWN, PA -- The horrific experiences of World War II concentration camps and both physical and emotional escape are evoked in pastel drawings and polychrome relief sculptures in the latest exhibition at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown. Lilli Gettinger: Memory Transformed, on view April 12 through August 3, 2008, is the first exhibit of the late Princeton area resident's work in over a decade. Often compared to that of German Expressionist Max Beckman, Gettinger's works allude to literature, music and the Bible, and reflect the chill atmosphere of the Nazi era without depicting specific events.

This exhibit is sponsored by Mary Lou and Andrew Abruzzese of The Pineville Tavern.

"The value of Lilli Gettinger's work lies not only with her unique personal experience of the Holocaust: the life of a child in the caustic atmosphere of events that led to the horrific tragedy and its equally difficult aftermath," says Erika Jaeger-Smith, the Museum's Associate Curator of Exhibitions. "The real value of her work is the insight we have from watching a brave person, who happens to also be an artist, triumph over such a defining experience. Her artwork depicts this process and inadvertently gives us all hope."

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.

Gettinger taught sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for fifteen years and at Artworks (formerly Princeton Art Association) for ten years. She was also one of ninety-two historical witnesses invited by the German government to take part in a commemoration in Berlin fifty years after the Holocaust. Twenty of her autobiographical drawings were exhibited at the Schöneberg Museum in Berlin during this time.

Gettinger and her second husband, Karl Hochschwender, settled in the Princeton region in 1979 where she lived until her death in 1999. The Museum offers a lecture by Karl Hochschwender, Ph.D., at the Museum in Doylestown on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 1 pm. Entitled "Lilli Gettinger: Dream Journey from the Holocaust to Freedom," Hochschwender presents a slide show and discussion about the artist's life and work, including her sculpture and works on paper. This lecture is free with Museum admission, but advanced registration is required by calling 215-340-9800.

Annual support for the Michener Art Museum is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Bucks County Commissioners and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

The James A. Michener Art Museum collects, preserves, interprets and exhibits American art, with a focus on art of the Bucks County region. The museum presents changing exhibitions that explore a variety of artistic expressions, and offers a diverse program of educational activities that seeks to develop a lifelong involvement in the arts as well as nurture a wide range of audiences. We also seek to educate our community about nationally and internationally known Bucks County artists of all creative disciplines. The Museum is located at 138 South Pine Street, Doylestown, and at 500 Union Square Drive in New Hope. Doylestown gallery hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 - 4:30; Saturday, 10 - 5; Sunday, 12 - 5. Galleries are closed Monday. Admission: members and children under six free; general admission $6.50, student (with current ID) $4, senior citizens age 60 and older $6. Main phone number: (215) 340-9800. www.michenerartmuseum.org.