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world renown for work

Arnold Belkin of Vancouver,
who for some years has been
Studying painting in Mexico,
electrified the art world dur-
ing the last year with a mural
depicting the uprising of the
Warsaw Ghetto. (See mural be-
low).

Born in Calgary 29 years
ago, Belkin received his early
education in the Peretz School
there and Jater in the Hebrew
School in Vancouver. He began

Rabell says that “Belkin |
captured in one of the finest
murals of our time the spirit
of the Warsaw Ghetto upris-
ing.” When the mural was first
exhibited to the public at the
huge Jewish Centre in Mex-
ico City it was received with
enthusiastic acclaim by every-
one. Art critics of all persuas-
ions rushed to outdo each oth-
er with superlatives and to |
celebrate Arnold Belkin as a

CANADA DAY, 1960

How often we think of these first intrepid ones!
Of how they came to harbours promising Prometheus! |

With hopes held strong by the gossamer of dreams,
they came

In full, reagent tide. And questioning, had stood

Upon your dreary, barren shores and fallow, untried |
plain

And saw the emptiness of crag and cliff, the deep,
impenetrable wood,

But wanting still, to be your sons

And find a happy, vernal, new domain!

Your tawny Eskimo and swarthy Indian had brothers
now!

All beautiful! Indomitable! French, Negro, Slav! \

Oriental, Hebrew, Scot! And more, of other creeds and |
faiths,

painter of world stature.
Describing the mural Rabell

to paint when he was very
young, and attended evening

classes at the Vancouver
School of Art when only 14
years cld.

At the age of 17 he left
Canada for Mexico to broaden
his horizons and strengthen his
knowledge and understanding
of art in the country where
art has flourished so remark-
ably since the Mexican Revo-
lution began in 1910.

Belkin’s teachers were
among the most outstanding
of the Mexican artists: Orozco,

_Siqueiros, Sanchez Flores and
Jimenez Rueda.

The first of his now numer-
Sus exhibitions took place in
1952 at the Anglo-Mexican
Cultural Institute in Mexico
‘City under the patronage of
the Canadian Embassy. Belkin,
at the time was but 21 years
old. His next one-man exhibi-
tion took place the following
year in the Vancouver Art

UPRISING OF THE WARSAW GHETTO. Mural in Mexico by the young, prominent

~ ARNOLD BELKIN

Gallery, and was followed by
a tour of galleries. in Western
Canada. His art during those
years strongly reflected the
massive impact which Mexican
culture had made upon him.
Even in those years there was
evident a striving toward the
universal content of human
experience.

Prominent Mexican painter,

Malkah Rabell, has described
Belkin as one of the foremost
Jewish artists in North Amer-
ica, He says about Belkin that
“in the land where the mural
has received its most -enthusi-
astic development in modern
times, and among the world
famous masters such as Diego
Rivera, Orozco and Siqueriros,
Belkin has been able to find
for himself a place of promin-

ence.”

Yancouver-born painter Arnold Belkin.

people.”

says “the mural is profoundly
Jewish, as is the artist itself,
and captures the full span of
anguish, terror, tragedy and
spiritual sublimity of that most
remarkable event in contemp-
orary Jewish history. Yet the |
artist has created a mural |
which has a message for évery- |
one, a message for all human.- |
ity.
Describing his work on the |
mural Belkin said “I tried to!
express an historic moment of |
great drama, which had moved
me profoundly, a kind of |
theme which has always inter- |
ested me. I wished to express |
in the central motif, the spir- |
it of struggle, of resistance, |
the fight to preserve human |
dignity. I did not want to use |
obvious symbols such as guns, |
flags and grenades. Instead, I |
used gestures and faces of |

Though nature had herself on each bestowed F
Her gift in variant ways, all destined were :
To one become, “a people” for your praise!

A nation had been born! From all their honest toil,

From all the sacrifices made, both great and small

And most incredible to hear! High courage had come

From each, until at last they gave you of their noblest
gift

When Time’s great Cost in tragedy was paid!

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O Canada, would you now pawn so much of this?
Can you so soon forget, that all your sovereign rights /
Were dearly bought with the lifeblood of your sons?

With every heart and its legend, with every soul and
its song,

With every mind and hand and its power, that made
you a lovely land?

Is this to be now disinherited, plundered and lost to a
greed?

Your cities, O Canada, your harbours and towns,

Your mines and your factories, your bridges and farms

Cry Protest! Stand proud as a nation, independent, and f
sworn —

To Peace in the world! O Canada

Touch gently your sons with millennium,
For those that are yet to be born!

— MARION PHILIPOVICH.

keep prosperous making tanks
for men like me to die in, why

Still a good question

This question was asked by | can’t we keep prosperous mak-

a tank driver during World| ing houses for men like me to
War II.

| live in?”

“I’m a tank driver. If we can The question still begs an

| adequate answer by those who
| pose as leaders of our society.

June 30, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page

$