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Metadata
Artist |
Sigal, Albert Dov |
Object Name |
Etching |
Title |
Cyprus Camp, from Cyprus Camp |
Date |
1948 |
Medium |
Etching |
Edition |
AP |
Dimensions |
5 7/16 x 8 3/16 in. (13.8 x 20.8 cm) |
Accession Number |
3374.0.0 |
Credit line |
Gift of Rose Sigal Ibsen |
About This Work |
Albert Dov Sigal lost his father at a young age and grew up poor. He joined the Zionist youth organization, Maccabi Hatzair, and studied enameling, engraving and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolozsvár. In 1933, he moved to Bucharest. By 1939, it was difficult to find work and he was arrested and made part of a forced labor battalion. Nevertheless, he began an underground art school. When a fascist military government seized power in late 1940, attacks against Jews increased. After their marriage in mid-1941, Sigal and his wife opened a jewelry business under a gentile name. They continued to live under deteriorating conditions in Bucharest and escaped deportation, though most of their extended family members were murdered in the Holocaust. Sigal reestablished his career in Bucharest after the War and in 1946 was given an exhibition at the National Museum. However, life in Communist Romania was difficult and the family applied to immigrate to the United States. Fearing retribution from the authorities, they destroyed their approved exit visas. Instead, they planned to go to Palestine. They sailed from Burgas, Bulgaria, on an illegal immigrant ship on December 27, 1947, and were intercepted by the British, who detained them in Cyprus. Sigal based his prints on drawings he made in the internment camp. The British released the family on February 22, 1948, and allowed them to enter Palestine because they were traveling with their young son. They eventually resettled in New York in 1959. Impressions of Eastern Europe: Prints from the Permanent Collection, 2020, exhibition label |
Legal Status |
The artist or artist's estate retains all copyrights to their work. |