Edith Altman

Edith Altman (born 1931)^[1] is a German Jewish-American artist. She emigrated from Germany to the United States at a young age. Her work investigates the lowest and the highest levels of any hierarchy. She explores systems (governmental, financial, cultural, etc.) of power, and the powerless.^[2]

Early life

Altman escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 as a little girl and emigrated to Chicago, Illinois. Her father Max Hittman (Markus Hüttmann) escaped from Buchwenwald, where he had been imprisoned since 1938.^[3] She lost her grandfathers and grandmothers on both sides of her family to the Holocaust. ^[4] While in the United States, she attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and was a resident at the UNO Art Gallery for the term of one month.^[5]

Notable Works

• "Reclaiming the Symbol: The Art of Memory" (p. 1988) - a painting that attempts to reclaim the symbolism of the Swastika and incorporates themes including kabbalism and Jewish mysticism. In the same work, she has also tried to reclaim the triangle, also expropriated by that hated regime for the purpose of sorting prisoners, for what she sees as it's "original purpose" -- part of the Star of David imagery.^[6]

References

1. Baigell, Matthew (1997). Jewish-American Artists and the Holocaust. Rutgers University Press. p. 55.
2. Edith Altman
3. http://chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/witnessLeg/survivorsRefs/altman/
4. (2003) Edith Altman:Retrospective. Lindenau-Museum and Autoren. p.157
5. http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-communication-fine-arts-and-media/art-and-art-history/about-us/print-workshop.php
6. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/21/nyregion/art-review-grappling-with-the-effects-of-the-century-s-greatest-evil.html?pagewanted=all