Cycle of paintings by Saar Roelofs

Saar Roelofs

Cycle of paintings

The girl and the wolf
About a girl in a concentration camp
A story of many times.

(1995 / revision 2016)

"An impressive and beautiful work of art."
Journal De Gelderlander

"A powerful statement of universal application."
Jack Boas, writer about Dutch Jews under de Nazi's

"Interesting and moving."
Helmuth Braun, Head of Exhibitions of the Jewish Museum Berlin

The girl and the wolf is a cycle of paintings about a girl in a concentration camp. The cycle displays a spectrum of essential human experiences - ranging from anxiety, shame and jealousy till compassion, remorse and hope - without an environment, framework or decor. The expression of the hands is ever important: they are for example clenched, defensive, loose, protective or nurturing. The series ends with a symbolic liberation.

Brief annotations with the paintings tell the story of the girl and the wolf. The storyline is partly based on Simon Wiesenthals book Max and Helen. Goya's series of etchings Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of the War) was an important source of inspiration for this series.

The girl and the wolf is a story of many times. It could not only happen in a Nazi concentration camp but also during the civil war in Yugoslavia, the Rwandan genocide, in an encampment of IS or in Congo.

Material: acrylic on canvas; all paintings are 70x90 cm.

Exhibitions & reception

A story of many times
Introduction by the artist

Like an axe in hard frozen ice
Introduction by Hans Paalman

The girl arrives with her mother, sister and little brother in the concentration camp.

1995 / REVISION 2016

The first version of the series, dates back to 1995 and consisted of eight triptychs with an accompanying text - a format which was adapted to the architecture of the Amstel Church in Amsterdam where the cycle was exhibited for the first time. In 2016 the series was revised. From the original series of twentyfour paintings eight works are retained. Twelf paintings were created again (the nature of the images stayed nevertheless the same). Furthermore, the paintings are no longer divided in triptychs. At last, the accompanying text was shortened. Thus a cycle of twenty paintings was created which not differs from the first version from 1995 with respect to content.

Exhibitions and reception

ArchiveS

A reproduction of the revised cyclus of paintings (1995/2016) together with explanations is kept in the archives of
- Yad Vashem in Jeruzalem
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington
- Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles
- NIOD - Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Netherlands

EXHIBITIONS

The first version of the cycle as created in 1995 was exhibited three times in the Netherlands:
- Amstel Church in Amsterdam (1996)
- National War and Resistance Museum in Overloon (1998), complemented with three maquettes of concentration camps
- Center for the Arts in Alphen aan de Rijn (2006), on the request of Simon Speijer, a personal (Dutch) friend of Simon Wiesenthal.

PRESS

"Confronting and moving; a statement, but not only that. Also an impressive and beautiful work of art." (De Gelderlander)

"Impressive and moving." (Algemeen Dagblad)

"Painted in sober colors and with virtuose brushstrokes, the work makes a deep impression." (Centraal Weekblad)

"Images, still and moving, subdued and expressive. What a world Saar Roelofs evokes by her brushstrokes." (Zinweb)

"Touching images." (AD Alphen aan de Rijn)

"The work excels in its simplicity."(Dagblad de Limburger)

FROM GUESTBOOKS AT THE EXHIBITIONS

- "Very confronting and intense - at the same time subtle and with compassion."
- "Impressive. At first I was sceptic. Later I was silent."
- "Sensitive paintings in a beautiful style."
- "The gruesome reality is expressed in a personal and poignant manner."
- "The paintings can show me (us) the unimagible. I am touched in my soul."
- "Very impressive images. Courageous and precious."

FROM THE INTRODUCTION to The girl and the wolf, with the title LIKE AN AXE IN HARD FROZEN ICE, BY HANS PAALMAN ON THE OCCASION OF THE 1998 EXHIBITION

"Like Picasso in his magisterial canvas Guernica Saar Roelofs achieves with her grey and white colors a dramatic tension. Whereas Picasso's Guernica is the shroud of the Basque city Guernica, Saar Roelofs' work of art is the shroud of the numberless victims of rape and genocide in the concentration camps."

(Hans Paalman, former director of the Municipal Museum Schiedam)
Full text

From letters AND E MAILS to the artist

"A powerful statement of universal application." (Jack Boas, author of a.o. Boulevard de miseres. The story of transit camp Westerbork and We are witnesses. Five diaries of teenagers who died in the Holocaust)

"Interesting and moving." (Helmuth Braun, Head of Exhibitions of the Jewish Museum Berlin)

"Impressive." (Edward van Voolen, curator Jewish Museum Amsterdam)

"Intrusive work of all times and people." (Stef Temming, former director the National Wat and Resistance Museum Oorlogsmuseum Overloon, the Netherlands)

"Provoking and poignant images. Very much of current interest because of its possibilities to deal with the past."
(Erik Somers, historian NIOD - Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Netherlands)“

"Impressive paintings.” (Inge Jaehner, former director Felix-Nussbaum-Haus)

"Moving work. It touches me." (Isaac Lipschits, Professor Emeritus Contemporary history and initiator of the Digital Monument of the Jewish Community in the Netherlands)

"A poignant cycle." (Dirk Mulder, director Memorial Center Camp Westerbork, the Netherlands)

"I appreciate very much that also artists don't stop to turn to the topic of overall dehumanisation." (Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, former chief curator Jewish Museum Vienna)

"Moving." (Liesbeth Brandt Corstius, former director of Museum Arnhem, the Netherlands)

"Powerful and exceptional." (Marcia Reines Josephy, former director/curator of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.)

"This moving and original work stimulates adults and children, regardless their cultural background, to think about victims and perpetrators, each in their own role involved in the same disaster. An unheard actual document." (Prof. dr Etty Mulder, former head research project Holocaust in the Arts, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)