Post No. 6 - The School of Yehuda Pen - Solomon Yudovin – The Siege of Leningrad

Соломон Борисович Юдовин - Блокада Ленинграда

We're still talking about the talented students of the school of art in Vitebsk. Ah, the lost world of Vitebsk. On the subject of:

• Post No. 5 - The School of Yehuda Pen - Solomon Yudovin – Matzevahs

• Post No. 4 - The School of Yehuda Pen - The Art of Solomon Yudovin - Vitebsk

I would be remiss to write about Yudovin without mentioning the Siege of Leningrad. It’s a unique testimony that speaks for itself.

There is often a quick sketch followed by an engraving.

Yudovin has witnessed and left the testimony how a man dies alone. And how people stopped noticing. The body is submerged in the snow. It’s the death of the culture that never came back after the punishing blows of the war and communism.

This is an iconic square. We accustomed to seeing overflowing with crowds and the revolution. Beautiful understated tonality, perspective, architectonic image of the square in a few translucent minimal strokes. A masterpiece.

The same square, now with a body resting.

Above is a preliminary sketch in ink and white paint accents. Below is the mirror image, the final wood engraving. The composition of the soldiers on the bridge slightly changed. The rest is the same.

There is a contrasting image of death and life marching on. The sled did not reach its destination.

The vastness of snow, punctuated by figures and shadows. There is usually one in the forefront and a group of people in the background.

This is something Yudovin must have seen. There is a jar to the side. The man or a woman must have been reaching for water and didn’t make it. We can see the stairs through the window. Spiraling upwards.

Simple monochromatic sketch, but so powerful. This is not an artist's imagination. This is something a man lived through a had courage to witness. A small body pushed by a mother, a figure, perhaps an older child in the front.

Death behind every mundane corner. Punishing winter, hunger, and death.

Fisherman, with a ubiquitous death in the background. Pointless and tragic death, after a pointless and tragic life.

The figure of an artist, perhaps Yudovin himself, is the same figure of the fisherman. The painting is the world burning and people running. Contrasting the artist warming his hands to the fire of the stove.

In a town covered with snow, they seem to always carry water. Would it be easier to melt the snow? But the fuel is at a premium and surface snow might not be as clean.

The roads are empty of cars.

There is just a small fragment of the Siege of Leningrad collection.