Artistic Synergy: A Polish Poet and a French Painter on the Holocaust

Jerzy Ficowski, a poet and author of harrowing poems on the Holocaust, like many other Polish poets, suffered from survivor’s guilt. In 1959, Ficowski, who admired Marc Chagall's dreamy paintings of pre-war Jewish life in Vitebsk, sent him his poem entitled "Letter to Marc Chagall" about two Jewish children and their torment. Touched by Ficowski's poem, Chagall, a French-Jewish painter who had lived in France since 1922, created a series of dramatic, black and white etchings that were published in a special bibliophilic edition in 1970. Together, the poem and the etchings convey a unique understanding of the Holocaust that will be the subject of this panel discussion. The event also features a screening of a film by Michael Nevins that tells the largely unknown story of Ficowski's poem and Chagall's accompanying etchings.

Speakers:

Elzbieta Smolenska, a former BBC World Service producer and freelance photojournalist and the narrator of the film "Letter to Marc Chagall. A Poem by Jerzy Ficowski."

Andrzej Maria Borkowski, artist and art critic, Senior Lecturer at School of Art, Brighton University, Founder member of Warsaw based theatre “Academy of Movement“

Katarzyna Zechenter, Associate Professor in Polish Literature and Culture at UCL SSEES specializing in Polish-Jewish literature and history of ideas, an award winning poet

Image credit: Ficowski Foundation