Kitty Klaidman
Artworks
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Kitty Klaidman A delicately painted work, Klaidman provides a sense of the claustrophobic attic spaces she lived in during the Holocaust. However, there is a redemptive aspect to the painting, as the cross in the center may be an inadvertant recognition of heroic Christians who rescued this Jewish family. |
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Kitty Klaidman These paintings of attic scenes were done after a return visit to Sastin, Slovakia, several years ago. |
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Kitty Klaidman These attic scenes were done after a return visit to Sastin, Slovakia, several years ago. The Xerox-generated works on canvas deal with the environment outside the home, mainly an area of forests. |
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Kitty Klaidman Klaidman's works are strongly directed toward the power of memory. A dark stairway in the Sastin home is both menacing and also a place for survival. |
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Kitty Klaidman Forests around Sastin were dangerous. Klaidman and her family could go out only at night for a small amount of time. On one occasion, they got lost and nearly were discovered by the Gestapo. |
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Kitty Klaidman Klaidman pays homage to the Christian family who offered her own family shelter. The use of photos and the shadows around the border suggests the difficulties of memory |
Artist's Statement
Klaidman was a hidden child, and now lives in Washington, DC. She and her family hid in a Slovakian rural attic space for several years. They could come out only at night. These paintings of attic scenes were done after a return visit to Sastin, Slovakia, several years ago. The photo-copy-generated works on canvas deal with the environment outside the home, mainly an area of forests.
Somehow, it seems to take about forty years for survivors to come to terms with their personal Holocaust experiences. It took me just over forty years to return to the places in western Slovakia where I was hidden as a child. Ever since that trip, I have been working out my feelings about this part of my past through images on canvas and paper.
The paintings in this exhibition depict the dark hiding places in which I was confined with my parents and brother. In each of these works, I introduced a seemingly paradoxical infusion of light, which may represent the remarkable fact that my immediate family survived intact. What it surely represents, however, is that the existence of people like Jan Velicky, the man most responsible for saving us, serves as a beacon of hope in the most desperate times. For me, being able to confront these spaces, as they are now and as I remember them, made me realize the extent to which I have already made peace with my past.
Technical Applications
Questions:
- What symbols do you see in her abstract works? Crosses, hope by use of light, fear of darkness and forests in the Xerox generated works on canvas, hope for inter-faith friendship because of the family that helped her.
- Discuss what life might be like in a hiding place for more than two years. What would you do with your time? How would you deal without some of the electronics and other conveniences you are used to?
- If you had to leave your home in a short period of time, such as 15 minutes notice, what would you take with you?
- If you had to hide, who would you ask to hide you?