Men at war / river

Michelleartg: Seeing Them Today - Men at war / river

This artwork is acrylic on canvas 90x70cm. Michelle Littauer Gavrielov brings back to life magical moments from the last century, capturing them in her grandfather's camera –his life journey. Gavrielov introduces color to them, reveals and hides elements and turns the memories into a personal journey to her roots and herself. Gavrielov's grandfather, Dr. Franz Shimon Littuaer, was born 1893 in Berlin, to a secular well-to-do family. He joined a Zionist youth movement and came to Israel for a first visit in 1913. As an avid photographer, he was fascinated by the local landscapes and documented his encounters with the environment of the old-new country in a series of photographs. In 1914 as he became an officer in the German army and continued to take photographs throughout the war. After the war he finished his studies in agriculture and Chemistry. In 1921 he immigrated to Palestine with his wife Regina and became a scientist at the "Vulcan Institute" in Rehovot. They lived in Tel Aviv with their son who was born in Israel (Prof. Uriel Zeev Littauer), while most of their family stayed back in Germany, and perished in the Holocaust. Littauer- Gavrielov's encounter with her grandfather's forgotten archive created a spiritual connection between her and his work, which she uses as a basis for her own creations. Out of thousands of black and white photographs, she chose the ones whose compositions and subjects spoke to her most. Working with a blow up of the original, she obscures or highlighting certain elements and adds her own interpretation- be it in collage or color- to the photographed moment. In doing so, personal memory blends in with collective memory, as moments captured over a century ago become up-to-date works of art. These reworked photographs bring together the past and the present, telling a story of loss and hope, innocence and disillusion, while connecting the artist to her family and her past.