Our Story, Your Story

Exploring a century of émigré history in London through the hidden treasures of the Ben Uri Collections

Out of Chaos Exhibition | Events | Centenary Blog | Press | Keep in Touch
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • Gallery
  • Archives
  • Chairman’s Essay
  • Your Stories
  • Get Social
  • About Ben Uri
    • Timeline
    • Contact Us
    • Support Us
    • Ben Uri 100 Films
  • Out of Chaos Exhibition
  • Centenary Blog
  • Keep in Touch

Shtetl

1987-187.jpg
Tell us what you think
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Chana Kowalska was born in 1907 in Włocławek, Poland. Her father, a rabbi, senator and Zionist, made their home a meeting point for intellectuals, and the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch wrote his first book there. Kowalska began drawing at the age of 16, but at 18 became a school teacher. In 1922 she moved to Berlin, where she met her future husband, the writer Baruch Winogora.

Kowalska later moved to Paris and settled in Montparnasse, borrowing the studios of her friends to paint. She was actively involved in the Paris Kultura-Liga and in Jewish communist circles, and also worked as a journalist and wrote about painting in Yiddish journals including Presse Nouvelle and the daily Le Journal de Paris. She held the post of Secretary of the Jewish Painters and Sculptors Association and participated in the 1937 Jewish Cultural Congress. During the Second World War, she was involved in the French Resistance with her husband; arrested by the Gestapo they were either shot, or deported and then killed, in 1941.

Despite Kowalska’s naïve style of painting, her strong lines, bold colours and simplified figures often disguise a more complex message in which a series of contrasting images are linked both literally and symbolically. In Shtetl – the traditional Jewish village or small town with a tightly-knit community that was common throughout eastern Europe before the Holocaust – Kowalska conjures up an archetypal scene with, at its centre, villagers gathering round the water pump. Nevertheless, the horse-drawn cart winding up a street lined with traditional, single-storey houses (a motif also used in her painting The Bridge, Ben Uri Collection) warns of a fast-disappearing way of life. Pavements and streetlights signal approaching modernisation and a church in the distance underlines the presence of the wider community. Many of Kowalska’s paintings recall her homeland and their folk-like quality, bright palette and unnatural perspective have affinities with the work of Chagall. This is one of two works by Kowalska in the Ben Uri Collection.

Shtetl

Chana Kowalska
( 1907 — 1942-43 )

Back to gallery
Previous item
Next item
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Date:
1934
Size (centimetres):
45 x 60
Artist place of birth:
Włocławek, Poland
Artist place of death:
Auschwitz, Poland
Presented to Ben Uri:
Presented by Mrs Moshe Oved, 1962
Related items

Apocalypse en Lilas, Capriccio
Work by Marc Chagall, which shares some affinities with the work of Chana Kowalska.

Search for more artworks

What does this picture say to you? Cancel reply

For 100 years, we've explored art, identity and migration. Share your thoughts and comments on this work and join in our centenary project: Your Stories.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Part of

Out of Chaos - Ben Uri exhibition
  • About Ben Uri
  • Community Partners
  • Events
  • Out of Chaos Catalogue
  • Keep in Touch
  • Terms & Conditions

In Association with

Kings College London Heritage Lottery Fund

© 2018 Ben Uri · Registered Charity 280389