Artist reception for Naumann show at New Haven Public Library Tuesday

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
Holocaust Memorial: An Exhibition of Lead Sculptures by Dana Baldwin Naumann
Through Sept. 26, 2011.
Artist's reception: Tues., Sept. 20, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

Dedication: "To my friend, the late Sigmund Strochlitz (1916-2006), a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, who realized that the world was beginning to forget the Holocaust."
— Dana Naumann

Dana Baldwin Naumann creates fanciful and fabulous sculpture, mostly crafted from lead sheets coated with copper or zinc patinas. Naumann's hammered sculptures are studies in texture, soft and warm looking even as metal surfaces, and depict religious, mythic, and archetypal scenes. Until 1994, Naumann had a successful career as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing with the Westinghouse Corporation in Pittsburgh, but then determined to devote his life to his art, a decision he says he has never regretted.

Naumann's works are in the permanent collections of The Aetna in Los Angeles, CA, and in Hartford, CT, and Villanova University, Villanova, PA. He designed and contributed sculptures to the permanent collections of United States Special Olympics, and a piece created on the theme of the Holocaust was given to the Thomas Dodd Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Other gifts of work were made to the East Shore Adult Day Care Center in Branford, CT, and to the Aids Project in New Haven, CT.

Art critic Steve Starger wrote about his work: "Naumann's finely wrought sculptures aren't depressing or oppressive. He draws on African and mythological references to create monolithic faces that are inspired by ritual masks and statuary, like monuments or totems left by a long-vanished civilization. These elongated faces appear aloof and ascetic, but are also strangely poignant, and each emanates a sense of mystery and longing."

The Dedication: Sigmund Strochlitz (1916 - Oct. 16, 2006) was born in Bedzin, Poland. He survived several concentration camps, including Auschwitz, where his parents and sisters were killed. In 1978, Elie Wiesel recommended him to become a member of President Jimmy Carter's Commission on the Holocaust, and he and Wiesel worked together to create the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1981, he and his wife Rose endowed the Chair and Institute in Holocaust Studies at Haifa University in Israel. In 1986, Strochlitz was named the second recipient of the Elie Wiesel Remembrance Award, and he later was a member of the Board of Directors of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. In 2006, Mr. Wiesel attended his funeral in New London, CT.