Holocaust painting exhibit at QCC

The upcoming exhibition at the Queensborough Community College Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives, “Genocide Among the Flowers: Seymour Kaftan’s Ponary Paintings,” shows events of the Holocaust through the oil paintings of a survivor.
About two years ago, center director Dr. Arthur Flug received a call from someone who said their father was a Holocaust survivor. They asked if Flug would be interested in seeing his works.
“We’re always interesting in seeing something that comes up,” Flug said.
Since the family was in Baltimore, Flug first saw the paintings through photographs that were sent to him and “was really impressed.” They were created by Seymour Kaftan, who was a teenager in Lithuania during World War II. He also witnessed the killing field known as Ponary.
Flug said that, after the war and as Kaftan, a self-taught artist, grew older, he wanted to do something as a memorial to what he saw, so he began painting. The paintings also have Yiddish quotes on them.
“I thought they were very interesting,” exhibition co-curator Ayala Tamir said of her initial impressions of the works, which Flug described as being graphic with bright and vivid colors. “I thought they were indeed telling…a very, very personal story.”
After seeing the works, which had been stored in a basement and previously only shown once a year, Flug said that he felt that they would make a “great exhibition.” He then drove to Baltimore so that he could see the paintings in person.
Kaftan and his wife have both passed away, but the family donated the collection of 24 paintings, all of which are included in the exhibit, to the Holocaust center.
“The powerful combination of images, text and photographs offer a rare perspective into this very dark period of history,” Flug said.
“Genocide Among the Flowers: Seymour Kaftan’s Ponary Paintings” will open February 16 with a reception beginning at 7 p.m. and will be on display through June 15. It is being accompanied by excerpts of Kazimierz Sakowitz’s Ponary Diary.
Educational programs related to the exhibition will also be held.
Tamir, who is also the assistant director of Queensborough’s Holocaust center, said that one of her goals for the exhibition is that people will learn more about the executions that took place in the Ponary Forrest through the imagery in the paintings. She also hopes that those to attend the exhibit will learn more about the artist’s story.
Flug said that another desired outcome for the exhibit is that other people who remember Ponary and escaped will come forward with their stories. He said that these stories can help the center as it educates others about what happened during the Holocaust.
The Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives is located on the Queensborough Community College campus at 222-05 56th Avenue in Bayside. It is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.qcc.cuny.edu/KHRCA, or call 718-281-5770.