Lea Grundig: Art for the People (Jüdische Miniaturen: Herausgegeben von Hermann Simon)

In 1944 The German-Jewish graphic artist Lea Grundig (1906–1977) wrote while in exile in Palestine: “An artwork that no one has seen is like a dead object.” In Nazi Germany, she had never had the chance to show even a single piece of work in public. The expressive series of etchings that capture her experience of the fascist reality are factually created in illegality. After multiple arrests, she finally manages to save herself by fleeing the country. In 1940 she survived the sinking of the “Patria” in the port of Haifa. Once in the country, she created many drawings on the fate of the Jewish people. They were a call for help to the world, for it not to shut its eyes and ears to the murder and terrible atrocities, and not to stand idly by. In addition to the artistic working through the Shoah, Lea Grundig became an important illustrator of Hebrew children’s books during this period ― a skill that she fully develops on her return to Germany in 1949 with great masterfulness in the illustrations of Grimm’s fairy tales. Her self-portraits bracket her significant body of work