Artist Displays Work At Jackson Center

BY THE POST-JOURNAL STAFF

editorial@post-journal.com

A two-month exhibition of large-scale prints by Sidney Chafetz, an internationally recognized artist, opens Saturday at the Robert H. Jackson Center.

‘‘The Perpetrators’’ is a collection of portraits and biographical text depicting the men who implemented the policies of the Third Reich and carried out the Holocaust. The exhibit is designed to educate, provoke discussion and encourage study among all age groups.

‘‘Perpetrators has two functions,’’ Chafetz said. ‘‘The first is as an art exhibition; the second as a catalyst for public programs on that terrible period in world history. It is my hope to provoke the audience to think critically about the present by remembering a past when a single tyrant was joined by a cadre of men in perpetrating evil across the world.’’

In conjunction with the exhibit, Chafetz will speak at a noon program on Monday, in the Jackson Center’s Carl Cappa Theater. The event and the exhibit are free and open to the public.

A resident of Columbus, Ohio, Chafetz is emeritus professor of art at The Ohio State University. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and then served in the U.S. Army in England, France, Belgium and Germany from 1942 to 1945. Following World War II, he continued his formal training at L⁄Ecole des Beaux Arts, Fontainebleau, the Academe Julian, Paris, and with artists Fernand Leger and Stanley W. Hayter. He has been the recipient of many honors and awards including two Fulbright fellowships and a Ford Foundation grant. He was selected as outstanding printmaker by the Mid-American Print Council and was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design and later elevated to Academician. His work is included in private and public collections in the U.S., Africa, Europe, South America, Israel and Japan. He is represented by Sherrie Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.

Major funding for this exhibit is provided by Bush Industries. Other sponsors are Arrow Mart; Artone Manufacturing Co.; Caprino Management Services; Chautauqua Region Community Foundation; Geer Dunn Company Inc.; Ronald E. Hermance Family; Congregation Hesed Abraham and Individual Members of the Congregation; Jamestown Community College; Charles M. Smith Inc.; Valley of Jamestown Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry; and William A. Walrod Trust.

The exhibit continues through Oct. 31. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. For more information or to schedule group tours, call Carol Drake at 483-6646 or e-mail cdrake@roberthjackson.org. The center is located at 305 E. Fourth St., Jamestown. Tours are available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

The Post-Journal

Jamestown, N.Y.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Vol. 181, No. 82

Sec. C, Page 1

Artist Speaks At Jackson Center About His Work

BY S. ALEXANDER GEROULD

agerould@post-journal.com

As one viewer put it, Sid Chafetz takes ugly things and makes them beautiful.

The former Ohio State University professor and artist was on hand at the Robert H. Jackson Center on Sunday to discuss his drawings of Nazi party officials and members. Chafetz work will also be on display for the public to view.

Greg Peterson, Robert H. Jackson Center board chairman, said he was contacted by Richard Goodman, a professor at the University of New York at Fredonia, about Goodman’s cousin’s art. Soon Peterson reached out to Chafetz and invited him to the center.

‘‘The message that is hoped for is the Holocaust happened and these are the people who did it,’’ Peterson said. ‘‘It could happen again.’’

While attending college, Chafetz was drafted into the military during World War II, seeing first hand the destruction and affect Nazi policies and acts had on the people who lived in Europe. Chafetz, a Jew, said he was motivated to make a statement about the Holocaust, and, when he had an ‘‘eureka moment,’’ realized how he would do it.

‘‘You need a certain amount of luck to get through life and fortunately I’ve been in the right place at the right time,’’ he said.

Chafetz soon began to extensively research members of the Nazi party, and with pencil in hand, he began his work.

‘‘Hitler was rabble-rousing on street corners and he developed a following,’’ he said. ‘‘It astounded me men with education ... said Hitler is our way out of our problems. They backed the wrong horse.’’

His pieces consist of a head shot or a full body image of a Nazi party member, or those who supported the party, and a small amount of information about each individual. Some of the words are capitalized and stick out, Chafetz said, to draw attention to them.

‘‘By using period photographs, together with biological text as integral to the drawn portraits, I satisfied the twin poles of my aesthetic and didactic interests,’’ he said, ‘‘work that achieves a formal coherence and at the same time has an educational impact.’’

Chafetz said he had a difficult time selecting which party members to draw, adding he tried to pick out some from multiple professions.

‘‘Selecting from the group of Nazis was very, very difficult. I had to make choices,’’ he said.

He also wondered how Nazi’s could look in the mirror at themselves each morning while shaving when they were committing horrible atrocities.

‘‘These people would go home to their wife and children and forget about the murder, the mayhem, they had committed with their policies. These are not stupid men,’’ he said.

Chafetz is hopeful his art will help people to always remember the Holocaust.

‘‘I hope the message is this was a period of time when a cultural country resorted to such terrible means of conquest,’’ he said. ‘‘The Holocaust should never have happened in the 20th century.’’

The Post-Journal

Jamestown, N.Y.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Vol. 181, No. 87

Sec. B, Page 1