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Exhibit

Surviving Visions: Vienna and Prague 1939-1942

Henry Isaacs & Lucy Winner
March 6 – May 2, 2025 

About This Exhibition

Surviving Visions combines visual art and words to illuminate the lives of artist Emil Singer and Franziska Wienerova, who lived under Nazi occupation in Vienna and Prague, respectively, from 1939-1942. Both were deported and died within two weeks of each other in Spring 1942. In this moving presentation, Henry paints after his cousin Emil’s images and Franziska’s letters, and Lucy reads and responds to Franziska’s letters. This exhibit will search for their voices and allow us to ask questions about their lives and our own. The integration of painting, letters and stories sheds light on life in this extraordinary time and on legacies 80 years later.

About the Artists

Henry Isaacs has painted for almost sixty years. Educated at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, Henry has taught Painting and Printmaking at art schools in the U.S. and Europe. He has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad. Henry has had two major shows at the Maine Jewish Museum. Special research projects and exhibitions have included “Seen from Paradise, The Art of Terezin (Theresienstadt Concentration Camp).” The current exhibition and performance is his first collaboration with actor and scholar, Lucy Winner.

Lucy Winner has worked as an actor, playwright, teacher and developer of collaborative community-based social justice performance. She holds a BA in theatre from Brown University and MFA from NYU School of the Arts. For many years she taught a range of subjects in performance at SUNY/Empire, where she is now Professor Emerita. In 2006 she co-founded the Winter/Summer Institute, an international applied theatre project focused on issues of community health that began in Lesotho, sub saharan Africa. More recently, she has worked with Irondale Theatre Ensemble’s police/civilian project, “To Protect, To Serve and To Understand” in New York City.

 

 

    • Exhibition Opening: Masha Ryskin & Serge Marchetta, Craig Becker, Henry Isaacs & Lucy Winner

      Thursday, March 6, 2025
      5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

      Mingle with artists and art lovers, enjoy wine and cheese with museum mavens and curious minds, and celebrate with us as we unveil our newest exhibitions!

    • Artist Program: Lucy Winner & Henry Isaacs

      Thursday, March 6, 2025
      7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

      Actor/scholar Lucy Winner will read aloud from works included in the current exhibition, Surviving Visions: Vienna and Prague 1939-1942.

Most of the art we exhibit is for sale. Your purchase helps support local artists and the Maine Jewish Museum.