The Art of Si Lewen

Critic’s Pick- New York Times

Article by Will Heinrich, Art Critic for the New York Times- April 18th, 2024

Curator Talk:

Art Spiegelman in Conversation with Dan Nadel

James Cohan Gallery

Sat. April 6th, 2024

EVENT AT 2PM

Join us at 52 Walker for a conversation between exhibition curator Art Spiegelman and Dan Nadel, Curator-at-Large for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, on Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 2 PM to discuss the work and life of Si Lewen.

This event is free and open to the public. No prior registration is required.

Si Lewen:

Curated by Art Spiegelman

James Cohan Gallery

Mar 23 - Apr 27, 2024

GALLERY EXHIBITION AT:

52 Walker St, New York, NY 10013

James Cohan is pleased to present Si Lewen, curated by Art Spiegelman, on view at the gallery’s 52 Walker Street location from March 23 through April 27, 2024. Polish-born artist Si Lewen (1918-2016) is best known for The Parade, an epic cycle of sixty-three black and white drawings that contends with the horrors the artist witnessed during the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. Lewen served in the United States Army during the Second World War as part of the Ritchie Boys, a specialized force of native German-speaking G.I.s, some of whom were Jewish refugees who immigrated to the US fleeing Nazi persecution.  This strikingly modern and profoundly resonant work is presented at James Cohan alongside important works from Lewen’s oeuvre dating from the early 1950s to the mid-2000s, the majority of which have not been seen for four decades.

This exhibition marks the first time that the full suite of The Parade has been shown in New York, following an exhibition at the Menil Collection in Houston in 2023.

Si Lewen’s Parade:

An Artist’s Odyssey

Edited and with an introduction

by Art Spiegelman

Imprint: Abrams ComicArts
Trim Size: 11 1⁄8 x 8
ISBN: 9781419721618
Page Count: 148
Illustrations: Accordion fold and slipcase
Rights: World/All

The Ritchie Boys

They were young. The world’s most unlikely soldiers. As teenagers, they had escaped the Nazis. They trained in intelligence work and psychological warfare, and returned to Europe as US soldiers - with the greatest motivation to fight this war: They were Jewish. They called themselves “The Ritchie Boys”.

“Our time needs you and your work.”

— ALBERT EINSTEIN, from a letter to Si Lewen, 1951

Panels from the Millipede series

REFLECTIONS &

REPERCUSSIONS

SI LEWEN’S MEMOIRS

PRINT AND KINDLE EDITIONS COMING SOON!

The first four pages from the graphic story A Journey