Yonia FainJewish Mexican Avant Garde Fiesta of Guadalupe Expressionist Oil Painting, c.1940's

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Genre: Avant-Garde
Subject: Abstract Mexican Landscape
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Country: Mexico
Dimensions:


Yonia Fain
Oil, 1947

Although this oil … Read more Genre: Avant-Garde
Subject: Abstract Mexican Landscape
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Country: Mexico
Dimensions:


Yonia Fain
Oil, 1947

Although this oil painting’s subject is predominantly abstract, there is a faint echo of a figural shape at its center. A figure wearing Tefillin, An organic form appears to be pinned to a hammer shaped object, reminiscent of a crucifix. This tool may be a reference to one of the Soviet Union’s symbols. Moreover, it is likely a direct reference to the persecution Fain faced as a Russian Jew in Bolshevik Russia. The contrast between colors, geometric lines, and organic curves is indicative of Fain’s collaboration with Diego Rivera, as well as the time he spent in Mexico. The primary hues communicate the hardship the artist underwent and his cathartic ability to reproduce those emotions through paint.

In addition to being a renowned artist and award-winning poet, Yonia Fain is among the few survivors to triumph over the turmoil of the 20th century. Fain’s abundant body of artwork and poetry pays tribute to the hardship many experienced during the Russian Revolution, Nazi invasion of Poland, and World War II. The persecution Fain experienced forced him to immigrate to several countries including China, Mexico, and the United States.

Yonia Fain was born in Russia in 1914. When he was only 10-years-old, he and his family fled from the Bolshevik Revolution to Poland. There he pursued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and hoped to continue his education in Paris. He was awarded B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Poland. In 1939, the artist and his wife Helen moved to Warsaw when the town they lived in, Vilna, became occupied by the Soviet Union. Although they managed to escape the Nazi Holocaust, Fain was apprehended by Soviet military and incarcerated. After he and his wife were released into Russia, they procured Japanese transit visas. Before the the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese shipped his family to a ghetto for Polish Jewish refugees in Shanghai, China. Throughout the remaining war years, Fain earned a living by painting individual portraits of Chinese militia and officials.

The tumultuous years of the war left Yonia Fain with no desire to return to Europe. In 1946, a friend of Fain sent samples of his art to the established Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. The muralist was so affected by Fain’s pieces that he sponsored a visa for the Fain family to Mexico. While there, Fain collaborated with Diego Rivera, learning the politics and skill of mural painting. During his years in Mexico, he had several exhibitions. All the while, Rivera encouraged Fain’s artistic merit and development by writing essays for his exhibition catalogs.

His stay in Mexico came to a close when artist Rufino Tamayo urged him to move to New York and recommended him for an art instructor position at the Brooklyn Museum. In addition to painting and exhibiting his work in the New York galleries of the day, he taught at New York University from 1964 until 1970. That same year, Fain was invited by the faculty of Hofstra University to teach the history and philosophy of art where he remained for over a decade.

Throughout his life, Fain has had several solo shows and his body of art has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Butler Institute of American Art, Albright-Knox Gallery, Chrysler Art Museum, London Jewish Cultural Centre, and at the Carnegie International. Moreover, Fain is an award–winning Yiddish poet who has won international recognition with his books A Gallow Under the Stars, Beloved Strangers, New York Addresses, and The Fifth Season. Well into his nineties, Yonia Fain continued to create art shaped by his travels and struggles. The artist believed there was a reason for his survival and that through his work he was able to chronicle the calamities he witnessed. Fain’s paintings, drawings, and poems seek to honor the many who perished and who were unable to inspire or teach future generations. See less