Reviving Sacha Kolin,Menachem Wecker

Reviving Sacha Kolin

Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin
By Lisa Thaler
Midmarch Arts Press, 2008, 472 pages, $28
http://www.sachakolin.com/

Lisa Thaler's obsession with Sacha Kolin dates back to a modernism show in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1998. Just before she and her husband, Martin, were ready to leave the exhibit, they both found them-selves coming back to a certain painting, which they later learned was Kolin's "Departure." Martin was sure he saw the Hebrew letter lamed in the work, while Thaler insisted the work was abstract. Indeed, "Departure" seems to have a crimson lamed just to the left of the painting's center, but one is tempted to dismiss the form as an abstract geometric shape, especially given the larger context. It is flanked by blue, green, tan, purple, white, gray and red shapes, which are decided un-Hebraic.

Sacha Kolin. "Departure." C. 1954. Oil on board. 24 x 30 inches. Collection Lisa Thaler family. All images courtesy of Lisa Thaler.

Thaler has since changed her mind, after dis-covering that the work dates from a time when Kolin was involved in a little-known movement called In-dian Space Painters. Kolin was thus experimenting with calligraphy, amongst other things, and she used, "spontaneous gestural flourishes and ancient written forms, which were often commented upon by the press," Thaler said. "I now see in Departure's compact geometric forms, the Hebrew letter lamed that Mar-tin saw," Thaler writes in her new book, Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin. "I imagine the lamed flanked by a gimel on the right and a tav on the left. Together they spell galut, meaning exile."

Hebrew or not, Lisa and Martin bought the work and hung it over their son Henry's bed. Though Henry paid little attention to the work, Lisa, a family historian, could not put it out of her mind. Look Up is the product of several years of sleuthing, searching for everything Sacha Kolin in libraries, archives and museum collections, and even interviewing Kolin's family and friends. From the start, Thaler suspected that Kolin was a Jewish émigré, but she was not ex-pecting to one day discover that the painter and sculptor was a relative of hers, as well. While re-searching in the Archives of American Art in Wash-ington, D.C., Thaler noticed the entry "David Thaler [of] Cedar Rapids, Iowa" in Kolin's circa-1955 ad-dress book. David was Lisa's husband Martin's cousin, but he had unfortunately died just six weeks before Lisa came across the entry.

Headshot, with cigarette. Courtesy of Joyce Rezendes.

Slowly but surely, Thaler was able to unravel Kolin's life story. The artist was born in Paris in 1911 to Malwina Slobodianiuk and Julius Kolin, an engi-neer who later became involved in designing air-plane propellers. Kolin's parents encouraged her art, and Sacha was exposed to art classes and exhibiting opportunities that were rare for women artists. In 1936, the Kolins moved to New York City, where Sa-cha had her first one-woman show, "Modern Sculp-tures and Sketches" at Rockefeller Center. Three years later, Sacha was included in the show "New Americans of Friendship House" along with 41 other émigré artists.

But even as later years would hold nearly 20 one-woman shows and more than 125 group shows for Kolin, she died a poor woman in 1981, and a steady stream of friends and acquaintances came to her house after her death to take her belongings in lieu of payment for money they claimed she owed.

Thaler's book presents a narrative of Kolin's life that is about midway between a memoir and a catalogue raisonné, a comprehensive catalog of the entire body of an artist's works - Thaler has docu-mented about 2,000 of Kolin's works. Writing Look Up became a process of not only unveiling Kolin's Jewish identity, but also of deepening Thaler's con-nection with hers. "I was surprised how quickly a prolific, exhibiting artist could fall into obscurity," she said of Kolin's absence from the contemporary art history canon despite her recognition during her lifetime. "I grew more sensitive, as a Jewish writer, to the aspects of personal and collective memory." In fact, Thaler felt so connected to Kolin that she places small stones on the gravestones of Kolin's family members buried in Chicago and lights a yahrzeit candle for the artist every year.

Sacha Kolin. "Night and Day." 1956. Oil on can-vas. 20 x 46 inches. Private collection.

Not only does Thaler lament Kolin's obscurity, she also believes there is a need for more and better research on Kolin's generation of World War II refu-gees. "For example, Albert Einstein, Gustav Mahler, and Max Ernst each had a child who was an artist," Thaler said, citing Margot Einstein, Anna Mahler, and Jimmy Ernst. "With the publication of Look Up and its supporting archive, Sacha is unlikely to be erased again. She and her circle are poised for recognition, and immigration's influence on their artistic creation deserves further study."

According to Thaler, an exhibit of Kolin's work at a Jewish museum or gallery could prove a "cata-lyst for broader critique and recognition" of Kolin's art. "Not only is Kolin's artwork up to par relative to her better-known peers," she said, "but also my addi-tion of her life narrative enriches our understanding of, and deepens our appreciation for her oeuvre. Sa-cha Kolin's life story and art are relevant to Jews, feminists, artists, historians, and others."

Sacha Kolin. "Procession." 1975. Pen, ink and wash. 16-1/2 x 13-1/4 inches. Private collection.

Thaler also points to other works of Kolin's as particularly relevant to Jews. She sees a reference to Ecclesiastes in Kolin's "stoicism" in "The Sun Falls and Rises," which she compares to the quote (1:5), "The sun shines (rises) and the sun sets, and it hur-ries to its place, where it shines (rises)." In this work, Thaler sees in Kolin an "acceptance of significant challenges, such as poverty and bouts of homeless-ness," as well as an "uncanny ability to land upright." Kolin also cared for the New York City homeless, and received a grant in the early 1970s from the City's Department of Cultural Affairs to film interviews with homeless people and to shed light on their dire situations.

"Sacha and her ancestors endured recurring displacements and shared concerns for social justice and equality, and for tikkun olam. Each is a theme of Sacha's artwork," Thaler said. "Jewish women artists will be inspired by Sacha's fierce ambition, unwaver-ing self confidence, marketing savvy and pro-found gratitude. We all can admire Sacha's strength and can savor the beauty that she created from the trauma of the era and the chaos of her life."

Menachem Wecker welcomes comments at mwecker@gmail.com. He is a painter and writer, and resides in Washington, D.C.

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