Once Upon a Time in Lithuania - Softcover

Alexander, Naomi; Taylor, John Russell; Newman, Aubrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0954848217 ISBN 13: 9780954848217

Publisher: David Paul, 2006

Synopsis

Naomi Alexander is an accomplished artist in the "kitchen sink" tradition of John Bratby and post-impressionist Pierre Bonnard. When invited by the Europas Parkas Museum in Vilnius to be their first artist in residence she decided to draw Jewish culture as her family roots go back to 18th c Lithuania. She draws what she sees: the vast forests and their dark secrets, the poor people that now live in the homes where Jews once lived, dilapidated buildings, synagogues and cemeteries and the churches that still loom over the old Jewish areas. Additional information and quirky captions give a sense of the present day struggles of Lithuania's small Jewish community.

About this title

About the Author

Throughout her career Naomi Alexander has worked as a figurative artist. Her paintings are in collections worldwide, including the Duke of Devonshire's at Chatsworth and the Sultan of Oman's. She exhibits regularly at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Mall Galleries. Also at Spink and Son, Mercury Gallery, David Messum, the Fosse Gallery and the Buxton City Art Gallery. The Victoria and Albert Museum has three of her paintings and several of the Lithuania paintings are in the Europas Parkas Museum collection in Vilnius. Her work is also included in the collections of Katherine, Viscountess Macmillan, Paintings in Hospitals and Sir Richard Storey. The Second Royal Tank Regiment (Desert Rats), the B'nei Birth Organisation, Lincolns Inn, and Baker Tilly are among the organisations that have given her one-woman shows. She is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. She is also an experienced Old Master picture restorer. She lives in London.

From the Inside Flap

Naomi Alexander was inspired by an artist s residency at the Europas Parkas Museum in Vilnius to draw Jewish culture. The result is a unique visual survey of the country s Jewish heritage, a powerful evocative tribute that brings to life the world of Lithuanian Jewry that was all but destroyed in the Holocaust.

"She captures a world which looks amazingly as it must have a century ago. There is one radical difference. There are no Jews" John Russell Taylor, The Times art critic

"Naomi Alexander puts down what she sees directly and unaffectedly. With the utmost economy of means ­ we get the story" Paula Rego

"A unique and remarkable book with its moving paintings and sketches of that tragic land" Lord Janner of Braunstone, Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust

"Wishing this marvellous book every success in bringing us the flavour of Jewish Lithuania which is no more" The Association of Baltic Jews in Great Britain

Edition details

• Publisher: David Paul
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0954848217
• ISBN 13: 9780954848217
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Alexander Naomi
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160