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“Art Born of the Horror”

Avraham Sapir and Saul Balagura reflect on the Holocaust

A A A Comments By Olivia Flores Alvarez Thursday, May 1 2008

Israeli artist Avraham Sapir, who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, makes work dealing with genocide and torture. Artist/poet Saul Balagura is not a survivor, but many of his paintings and poems also deal with the events and effects of the Holocaust. Work by both Sapir and Balagura will be on display during “Art Born of Horror” at Rice University’s Boniuk Center.

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The exhibit has an exceedingly short run — just a few days, but smart art lovers will make the effort to see it. Sapir’s abstract and intense paintings are nicely paired with Balagura’s vivid and emotionally wrenching work.

Asked how he paints scenes from the Holocaust when he didn’t experience the tragedy firsthand, he answers, “Is what I paint history? Is it my own invention? When I’m painting or writing, I conceive of events that must have happened and that statistically very likely happened. I can empathize with what I know happened and hopefully put that into my paintings.

“Most people say the Holocaust ended in 1945. Actually, it’s still going on. Say a family was killed that would have had a child that would have become someone that I would have met now, but now I can’t meet them because their family was wiped out. That affects me. That person could have been a great musician, and I cannot listen to that music, so we, the world, are being deprived of all the amputations of history that occurred. So it hasn’t ended. It can never end, because it continues to affect us by what — and who — is not here.”

See “Art Born of Horror” 9 a.m. to noon today, tomorrow and Sunday. 6100 Main. For information, call 713-348-4536 or visit www.boniuk.rice.edu. Free.
Wed., April 30, 6 p.m.; Thu., May 1, 9 a.m.-noon; Fri., May 2, 9 a.m.-noon; Sun., May 4, 9 a.m.-noon, 2008

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