Painter Valentin Lustig opens up

“Hoka-Neni: Seven Paintings by Valentin Lustig”

The Frick Art ‘ Historical Center

7227… “Hoka-Neni: Seven Paintings by Valentin Lustig”

The Frick Art ‘ Historical Center

7227 Reynolds Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15208

(412) 371-0600

One artist shares his view of humanity in the rotunda of The Frick Art Museum. In a rich, seven-panel, symbolic narrative on view at The Frick through Nov. 9, Romanian-born Swiss artist Valentin Lustig casts his Hoka-Neni, “Auntie Hoka” in Hungarian, as the protagonist. Hoka-Neni died in the Holocaust along with her four children.

“Hoka-Neni: Being the History of The Life and Deeds of The Incomparable Hoka-Neni, Truthfully Depicted in Seven Parts by Her Nephew Valentin Lustig, Painter in Zurich” is the artist’s most ambitious work to date. Lustig, who has twice exhibited in Pittsburgh, draws from a variety of sources – art history, philosophy, theology, Western culture, politics and his life. He incorporated figurative imagery from these disciplines and beliefs, along with his memory and imagination, into the modern polyptych. The result is a highly animated and colorful tale – sometimes accessible, sometimes not. It is both a fantastic dream world and a sobering account of human experience.

Lustig never knew his aunt. A son of parents who survived the Holocaust, he was born in Romania in 1955 and emigrated with his family to Israel, where he finished high school and served in the Israeli army. He later studied art in Florence and eventually settled in Switzerland, where he married. Through “Hoka-Neni,” he tells his response to his family’s history and his views on the world.

In an interview, the artist discussed the failure of the Enlightenment, a theme he alludes to in one of the panels in which a dog is portrayed urinating on Classical ruins.

“It was the belief that, ultimately, everything is explainable, everything will have, sooner or later, a literal level. The unknown, the mysterious – which is a main focus of interest in religion and mysticism – the Enlightenment tended to erase,” said Lustig. “And this is the reason why one of the failures of the Enlightenment found its terrible expression in Auschwitz and many other terrible things. Human beings have an irrational element in them, and if you tell them there is no space in their lives to live it out, it’s going to explode.”

The work comprises the story of the temptation of Hoka-Neni. In a larger panel, Lustig has drawn from sources of the “Temptation of St. Anthony” in art and literature. Dr. Edith Balas, curator of the exhibition, discusses these sources in an accompanying catalog. Balas, Professor of Art History at Carnegie Mellon University and Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh, is also the author of “The Holocaust in the Painting of Valentin Lustig.”

The pathos of Lustig’s narrative is particularly revealed in the central panel, in which Hoka-Neni, a housewife, stands dwarfed by the vast landscape full of figures and objects symbolizing ideology, war and death. Powerless to the coming destruction, she continues her task of rolling dough while watching the ominous panorama before her. She does not see a gray tank or a gun aimed directly at her.

Lustig also painted a beautiful, lyrical landscape into the series, using deep blues, forest greens and white moonlight. He evokes a landscape of the Northern European Renaissance, having created deep, aerial perspective with a winding body of water receding toward distant snowy mountaintops. Hoka-Neni, a young woman, gazes into a clear pool of water at a reflection of the moon.

The artist discussed the light and dark aspects of his work, referring to an allegory found in German literature of the Romantic Age about a man who sells his shadow to the devil in exchange for unlimited wealth.

“‘Well, I’m sure I’ll arrange to live among the people without the shadow,'” said Lustig, telling the story.

“But then he finds it impossible,” explained Lustig, concluding, “The shadow is the allegory of fantasy, for irrationalism, for the dark side in ourselves. We have to give him space.”

“Hoka-Neni: Seven Paintings,” organized by The Frick Art ‘ Historical Center, is compelling both visually and emotionally. The investment Lustig demands from the viewer ends up paying dividends.