Jewish Guild Annual

(1,U'~ VOLUME 19 No. 109 JEW I SH GUILD O ct ober. 1951 3 1 JEWISH GUILD ANNUAL best of a ll to work with wood, but it is in cl ay and a nd he ha s a hatr ed of war and all that w ar repre YEA UA L pl aster that he has done his most impres sive work. se nts. One of hi s outstand ing works is a sculpt ure October. 1951 From Vienna he w ent to Berlin, but found no w h ic h he calls "The Unkn own Soldi er", - a great, foothold in the German capital. From Berlin to ' supine fig u re lying face downward on a cross, the It is a long road that Herman Wald has Paris - lithe nerve-centre of the art world, which," bac k knotted a nd gna rled like a bl ast ed mountain; he says, " m ade my h eart beat in a tempo that' ec hoes on e . h and g rasping a broken swor d, the other travelled, but the fruits have been rich and the heartbeat of every artist all ov er the world." im potently resting on the cross of a soldier's grave. But P aris or the depression years gave the a rt ist l! is to be hoped that one day t his, too, will be worth striving for. no living, a nd he turned to London. Here,. t houg h acce pt ed by some public organisati on as a there was at the time what memorial ; certainty no war Wald calls "an awakening m cm cr ial could ca rry. a to the consciousness of m essage mor e meaningful. 'The Art Of Herman Wold modern art," there was also The home environment no living: at times the of .h is childhood, Hebrew By EDGAR BERNSTEIN artist was so hard up that legend a nd Hebrew lore , he was forced to dig clay have worked indelibly upon ':Ul-E need memorials because pe opl e forget. II from the river to model. hi s soul. A great deal of / ' Memorials are not for the dead, but for the his work is essentially . living. Every time we are In danger of forgetting t he THE ro ad that carries a m an from hi s native So in 1937 he traversed Hebrew in inspiration. six million dead, this figure w ill remind us. In this Hung ary through Au stria , Germany, France and the ocean to South Africa. massive sculpture, Mr. Wald has de vis ed a fitting Britain to di stant South Africa is long a nd a r duous, His brother was already Th ere is a stone head of memorial to the six million, Jews killed by Hitleor." with many a bitter pa tch to trav erse on th e wa y. So here, holding a rabbinical Mos es, superbly executed, The speaker was Sarah Gertrude Millin, the famous H erman W ald h as found it in hi s forty-three years post in East London, and majestic and big (it Is South African Jewish writer, and she w a s address crammed with change and challenge . H e starte d life he urged Herman to come. as the son of a rabbi, and his father 's orthodox three times life size). A ing a gathering of J ewi sh communal lead ers in th e n was a new country, he Johannesburg studio of Herman Wald over a yea r home was opposed to th e art th at early mad e its call smaller figure depicts ago. Towering over the gat hering stood the figure to the sensitive boy . He had to work a t his carving said, hospitable, with new .she was speaking a bou t . - a H ebrew figure, t w elve larg ely in s ecret , risking paternal di s approval and opportunities. Herman Wald Moses with the Ten Com .feet high, te aring his garment In pu n is h m en t on di scovery. Once he found hospitality here mandments: the sculpture the act of uk'ria ." And "K'ria" was eve n r an a way to the nei ghbouring hut scarcely the opportun flows in a rhythm that ~._. ",:", _,, __"" :...... • + j-, A _ _ , ..'h; 'h ". A _ ~ . A_~~ ~~rd', 'liBs/lrtlt6~7 &&b ........ .... ... ,......- ago. Towering over the gat he ring stood the figure to the sensitive boy . He had to work at his carving WJYif "II:@\\- .she was speaking a bou t . - a Hebrew figure, t w elve larg ely in s ecr et, risking paternal di s approval and opportunities. Herman Wald Moses with the Ten Com .feet high, te aring his ga rment In pu n is h men t on di scovery. Once he found hospitality here mandments: the sculpture the act of uk 'ria ." And "K'ria" was eve n r an away to the neighbouring hut scarcely the opportun flows in a rhythm that the name which the artist had mountains which, h e says, fir s t fired ities his brother envisaged. g iven the work. him wit h the desire to become a The hard, uphill struggle surges upwards trom out Mrs. Millin turned to look up at SCUlptor .Th e childhood conflict re continued, with the artist stretched tee to the top of the figure and s a id: "H e is tearing ope ned wh en he returned hom e un slowly establishing himself the cla sped Tablets ot the his g arment in mourning, yet t il, he says , th e day when he broug ht in hi s new home. Law. There is a group he through his grief there is also his first big attempt at modelling calls "The Refugees" which sullen defiance and pride on his fro m th e privacy of th e pantry III presses all the horror of face. The head is uplifted with wh ere he had worked upon it . It flight from persecution Into determination. This is a figure not w a s a bust three times life s ize, and the form of a mother Wald tells th at as his father THE work of Herman only 'of mourning, but the deter attempting to save her mination to carry on , Here is a in spected it , HI noticed a veil gradu Wald shows all the child and herselt. There breast bared to the world. Do ally lifting from his eyes - a screen 'in fluen ces of his life's wide w hat you Will, it seems to say: that separated the religious pre are Biblical subjects of journey - but all fused desolation and wrath. here I am and here I shall stand. judice from the instinctive under into his Own personality, There is the symbolic panel It is a figure of Jewish · endurance standing of the fine arts. But he so that you cannot say he only sh ook his head in a non-com he has carved for the new which Mr . Wald has created, and works after this or that we owe him our gratitude for mittal way, not knowing whether to Sp rin gs Synagogue. putting these thoughts into con be for or against my career." school. Impressionism is crete form." Eventually, Wald decided to leave here, as well as a classical And then there is the My eyes turned from the noble , his home a nd , ag a inst family remon austerity; r ealistic port work in wh ich Wald has anguished face to se arch out the strance. journey into the greater raiture, and fancy's free turned away from his sculpt or , standing unobtrusively by world, bent upon his art. His father rein. In wood, he makes anger and his g ra ndeur, the wall. He was moved by the had wanted him to be a cantor, but sensitive use of the grain and give n himself ent irely writer's words about his work. and he felt no ca ll to the pulpit. His of his material, taking his to the native joy of creat brother, Marcus Wald (now in as his eyes filmed moistly and the line from the line it has i n g form - b I' e a t h muscl es round his m outh quivered. America) became the rabbi in his followed in growing; he less , rhy t hm ic movements HERlIIAN \VALD stead. One professional prop his I leo ked suddenly back to the works, that is to say, "with of pla st er, wood and stone: sta t ue. Above the massive father's home did. ho w ever, g ive him : the boy had an excellent voice , and his father the material," rather than t he forms cf power , of shoulders, the sc ulptor had moulded his own head . imposes an a lien pattern m a t ernal love, of the love So "K'ria" · w as not only his monument to the trained him for choral s ing ing. When he studied in Budapest, and later in Vienna . he ear n ed his upon it. In stone, he likes of a man for a maid . .. martyred: it w as a ls o hi s personal identification w it h m eagre living s in g ing in synagog ue choirs , a nd, to release the form he sees the suffering and the glory of his race. A daring Jater in op era chor uses. He preserves h is love of latent in the material.

Load more