Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (20.2020)

16. Wilhelm Wachtel,
Farewell to Golus, ca. 1935,
Museum of the Borderlands
in Lubaczów, inventory
no. ml/1061a/14. Photo af-
ter: <https://tinyurl.com/
n879x7re>
->see p. 261

closed eyelids reflect his sadness. Szymon Spund interpreted this representation
as an image of Christ, the comforter of martyrs, victims of those who allegedly
acted on his behalf, condemning them by revealing his own wounds, and convey-
ing the idea that he did not shed his blood for such treatment of others.115
The image of an old Jew in a tallit resembles the image of the prophet Jeremiah
presented by Boris Schatz.116 In the biblical scene of the founder of the Bezalel
Academy in Jerusalem, a man is sitting, visibly saddened, and writing a prophecy
of the imminent fali of Israel under the Babylonian armies - while in Wachtefs
lithograph, the old Jew can be perceived as an pronouncement of the community s
collapse under the pressure of the Christian majority and the pogroms.
Farewell to Golus117
The panel Farewell to Golus closes the lithography portfolio, and shares the title
with the complete series (see: Fig. 16). The work ends with the narrative woven by
the artist: from the presentation of culture and tradition, through showing alienation
and persecution, to the expression of finding a new way in a trip to Palestine.
The composition was divided into three zones. In the first one, at the very
bottom, there is a linę of traditional matzevot. The second reveals a smali clearing
with a Iow building with a large entrance arcade, in which the flame of a hang-
ing lamp shines through from the darkness. In the centre of the square there are
three young people walking forward, towards the right edge of the composi-
tion. One of the boys, holding a bundle on a stick slung over his shoulder, turns
towards two older people - a man sitting on a bench in front of the building
and a woman standing next to him. In the third zonę, separated by the border
of the inclined slope of the hill, a group of young people - a girl and five boys -
are promenading. They walk in pairs in a compact formation towards the left
edge of the lithography.
Young people introduce dynamie elements into the composition through
their legs stretched forward, indicating the direction of their movement. They
are dressed in simple outfits - shirts and shorts, and women in knee-length
dresses. This garment is typical of youth Zionist movement. Some of the people
depicted are carrying bundles, backpacks or holding sticks in their hands, which
is to symbolize the purpose of their journey - emigration to a new homeland in
Zioń. The artist also applied a symbolic procedurę by placing one of the groups
on a hill, which is related to the translation of the verb aliyah, which means to
ascend and migrate to Jerusalem, which located in the hills. The young Zionists,
through the gesture of the raised hand of the girl in the upper zonę, and the boys
turning in the centre, are saying goodbye to the traditional life represented by
the couple of religious Jews. Meanwhile the latter, dressed in traditional, modest
clothes, raise their hands in a gesture of blessing.
In this scene, Wilhelm Wachtel shows the clash of tradition with the Zionist
present and the futurę of Jews. Youth departing from the diaspora will create

115 Sz. Spund, Pożegnanie z Golusem, p. 9.

116 B. Schatz, Jeremiasz, ca. 1911, oil on wood, 70 x 105 cm, private collection.

117 W. Wachtel, Pożegnanie z Golusem, ca. 1935, lithograph, 59.5 x 43.5 cm, mkl, inventory no.
ML/1061A/14, <http://judaika.polin.pl/dmuseion/docmetadata?id=6564&show_nav=true> (ac-
cessed on 25.04.2020).

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ARTICLES

Maksymilian Puzio