Vol.3_David Ludwig Bloch|I want to portray beggars, rickshaws, women

In April 1940, I was thirty years old. Taking the Conte Rosso from the port of Venice, I left the European continent and went to Shanghai, an eastern city that I can't imagine.

Mist surrounds the port, and there are Chinese people pulling boats. It wasn't until I docked on the shore and the cabin shook that I didn't really feel:

I am in Shanghai. I ran to the deck and couldn't hear a sound, but I saw many beggars in rags, holding bowls and looking at me and talking. I probably understood, they were begging from me. But, God, you've got the wrong people. In your land, I may have nothing more than you.

At the beginning, they hoped for the relief of the wealthy Jewish businessman Hatong, but they were overwhelmed when they saw the flood of refugees from their hometown. Especially the Russian Jews who have made a lot of money in the East long ago. They despised us for being penniless, they ruined the image of the white people in the concession, and they were even more indifferent to us. I continued to look for a job as a commercial illustrator. There are many department stores. Shanghai, which is still brightly lit at night, gave me many opportunities. I did billboards and newspaper illustrations. Apart from these work, I still study woodcut prints. I will never forget the scene when I first arrived on the Bund. Therefore, beggars, women, and rickshaw drivers have become my creative themes.

I'm not like other white friends who like to depict the feasting and feasting of the ten-mile foreign market, but I like to depict those homeless people on the street, the eternal marginalized group. They despise these Chinese people who are thin and have a feeling of being superior to others, but I don't. I just thought they were lonely and nobody cared about them like I was in Europe before. I first lived in the French Concession, then the Japanese came to Shanghai, and I was forced to live in the ghetto with other Jews. I've never given up on my paintbrush, and this one has given me a partner for the rest of my life. She is a Chinese girl, deaf and mute, but has a gentle and kind personality. This is the biggest advantage. Is it too late for me to be grateful? Is not it? Shanghai also let me hold my first solo art exhibition.

And just like that, I spent ten years in Shanghai, which I never imagined before. And this decade was like my life school.

In March 1949, I was forty years old. My wife and I left Shanghai for the United States. I can't take anything with me, but being able to leave those woodcut prints is the best souvenir to accompany this city.

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David returned to Germany in 1976, and since then concentration camps have been the subject of his art. The visual language turns to dark brushstrokes. Disassembled limbs, bones, the gates of the concentration camps all become elements of the work. In 2000, he had a solo retrospective at the Jewish Memorial in Munich, on his 90th birthday.

He died at his New York home two years later at the age of 92.

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Woodcut prints are a way for him to indulge in dialogue with the times and the environment he lives in. Fortunately, later generations can see a small slice of history at that time through these works left behind.

David needs to face so many hardships in his life. He has no one to blame. Even if he is blamed, what can he change? Most people can't change the trajectory of the times, they are just pushed along as particles. But at least he can communicate with the outside world and his own heart through creation.

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Vol.1+2+3 Originally published on WeChat public account: Talking Dangdang Car

A non-fiction creation based on real material.

Reproduction without permission is not allowed.

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source:

Leo Baeck Institute

Jewish Wayfarers in Modern China: Tragedy and Splendor by Matthias Messmer