Location: Jerusalem, Israel
"Throughout the years the artist swayed between light and darkness: from his innocent experiences as a child to a frustrating, harsh adolescence; between tragedies and hopes; black and gray; between subtle sketches and dark rough surfaces." --Irit Salmon Curator
Motke Blum, a Romanian Holocaust survivor in his late eighties, did not start painting about the Holocaust until his grandson began asking questions about it. At the time of writing this, he was having the first exhibition of his Holocaust paintings: Seeking the White Dove at the Bezalel Artist’s House in West Jerusalem. I first encountered Motke in his studio in the Arts and Crafts center at the foot of the Jaffa Gate. He spends every day there surrounded by stacks of paintings, rows of sculptures and masks, and a pile of his coffee table book: Jerusalem: Reflection of Eternity. Motke talked about his experience in the Holocaust and his 1944 escape from the Romania. During the Holocaust spent in a Romanian labor Camp, Motlke continued to paint. He shared the details of his activities during the war and his adventures once he arrived in Israel where he worked on a kibbutz and became a plasterer in Netanya. Motke witnessed the torpedoing by the Germans of one of the three ships, the Mefkuri- in the convoy which carried him to Israel. It was not until 1951 that he began formal study at Bezalel.
Most of Motke’s art is not directly about the Holocaust. His love of the circus and his appreciation for Jerusalem provide subject matter for many paintings and sculptures. His fascination with the circus began in his childhood. Motke is prolific. As he told me many times, he never likes to repeat himself. He has made art in many forms: silverwork, enamel, sculpture, mosaics, and painting and has won countless awards and exhibited worldwide, including in the major Holocaust museums Yad Vashem and the American Holocaust Museum.
Motke says hello to my students