My goal continues to be to find more of my great-grandfather’s lost and missing paintings and to ask those who have his work to share those pieces and the stories behind the paintings with my family before that history is lost forever. Cultural artifacts are best understood within the history from which they arise. At its most basic level, the provenance of a painting is information about who painted it, who has owned it, and how each owner obtained it. But to truly understand a painting, one must know something of the artist’s life, the time in which it was painted, and the painting’s own unique journey. As with any work of art, Moshe’s paintings cannot be entirely understood by looking at any single piece in isolation. The story of my great-grandfather’s body of work is larger than any given single drawing, painting, or sculpture (which I have yet to find!). Each piece, and its unique story, adds meaning, complexity, and understanding to his oeuvre. This is why museums host retrospectives – to step back and have a bigger, and more informed, perspective of an artist’s body of work.
This piece is one of 17 pieces that the Jewish Historical Institute (ZIH) emailed me a few days ago. It was acquired by them in 1964. They have titled it, “Modlacy sie Zydzi,” [Jews praying]. It is identified as ink on paper.
