ThoughtGallery.org > Art Exhibit and Talk on the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

Art Exhibit and Talk on the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

“Without these papers one did not exist. It was the beginning of what was to follow.” – Ilie Wacs

When artist and former iconic coat designer Ilie Wacs began work with his sister on their memoir An Uncommon Journey, he rediscovered a suitcase stuffed with the family’s identity papers. The contents inspired Wacs to create A Gathering Storm: The Vienna Papers, 1938, a unique 15-piece collection of artwork, which debuted at the Pamela Williams Gallery in Amagansett, N.Y.

Deriving its imagery from stamps, seals, passports, script and symbols of authority, the work focuses on the documentation required for Jews that began with Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a wave of state-sponsored anti-Jewish violence in Nazi-controlled areas on Nov. 9 and 10 in 1938. Today, the family’s papers that inspired the art collection are part of the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s permanent archives.

Join Wacs and his sister, Deborah Strobin, for a special evening of art and history that includes first-hand accounts through the eyes of Wacs as a teen growing up in Vienna, the family’s escape to Shanghai, and their ongoing search to find out what happened to the local Nazi SS officer who surprisingly saved their lives.

Ilie Wacs and Deborah Strobin are Vienna-born siblings who escaped Nazi Austria along with their parents on the last boat to Shanghai during WWII. They are the authors of An Uncommon Journey-From Vienna to Shanghai to America: A Brother and Sister Escape to Freedom During World War II.

About Ilie Wacs

Ilie Wacs is an artist and former fashion designer-best known for his iconic suit and coats-who studied art in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts after World War II and then worked for designer Alex Maguy. He went to New York at the request of suit and coat maker Philip Magone and in the late ’60s designed for coat maker Originala. In the early ’70s, Wacs started designing suits and coats under his own label and made his mark designing fitted coats in vibrant colors with clean lines and simple cuts at a time when coats were boxy. His highly successful Ilie Wacs and Wacs Works lines spanned over two decades.

After retiring from his career in fashion, Wacs has devoted his time to painting with his works shown in New York galleries. He resides in New York City and Eastern Long Island.

About Deborah Strobin

Deborah Strobin is a well-known San Francisco fundraiser credited with organizing large and high profile events raising millions for good causes over the past two decades, including the first-ever HIV/AIDS benefit at Davies Symphony Hall in the 1980s, the city’s first Yves St. Laurent couture fashion show to benefit the San Francisco Symphony and the largest fundraiser in U.S. history for stem cell research in 2006. She also served as the deputy chief of protocol for the city of San Francisco and commissioner of the Public Library Commission. Her late husband Ed Strobin was CEO of Banana Republic and one of the founders of Discovery Channel stores.

 











When: Thu., Nov. 7, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Where: Museum of Tolerance
226 E. 42nd St.

Price: $15
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“Without these papers one did not exist. It was the beginning of what was to follow.” – Ilie Wacs

When artist and former iconic coat designer Ilie Wacs began work with his sister on their memoir An Uncommon Journey, he rediscovered a suitcase stuffed with the family’s identity papers. The contents inspired Wacs to create A Gathering Storm: The Vienna Papers, 1938, a unique 15-piece collection of artwork, which debuted at the Pamela Williams Gallery in Amagansett, N.Y.

Deriving its imagery from stamps, seals, passports, script and symbols of authority, the work focuses on the documentation required for Jews that began with Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a wave of state-sponsored anti-Jewish violence in Nazi-controlled areas on Nov. 9 and 10 in 1938. Today, the family’s papers that inspired the art collection are part of the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s permanent archives.

Join Wacs and his sister, Deborah Strobin, for a special evening of art and history that includes first-hand accounts through the eyes of Wacs as a teen growing up in Vienna, the family’s escape to Shanghai, and their ongoing search to find out what happened to the local Nazi SS officer who surprisingly saved their lives.

Ilie Wacs and Deborah Strobin are Vienna-born siblings who escaped Nazi Austria along with their parents on the last boat to Shanghai during WWII. They are the authors of An Uncommon Journey-From Vienna to Shanghai to America: A Brother and Sister Escape to Freedom During World War II.

About Ilie Wacs

Ilie Wacs is an artist and former fashion designer-best known for his iconic suit and coats-who studied art in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts after World War II and then worked for designer Alex Maguy. He went to New York at the request of suit and coat maker Philip Magone and in the late ’60s designed for coat maker Originala. In the early ’70s, Wacs started designing suits and coats under his own label and made his mark designing fitted coats in vibrant colors with clean lines and simple cuts at a time when coats were boxy. His highly successful Ilie Wacs and Wacs Works lines spanned over two decades.

After retiring from his career in fashion, Wacs has devoted his time to painting with his works shown in New York galleries. He resides in New York City and Eastern Long Island.

About Deborah Strobin

Deborah Strobin is a well-known San Francisco fundraiser credited with organizing large and high profile events raising millions for good causes over the past two decades, including the first-ever HIV/AIDS benefit at Davies Symphony Hall in the 1980s, the city’s first Yves St. Laurent couture fashion show to benefit the San Francisco Symphony and the largest fundraiser in U.S. history for stem cell research in 2006. She also served as the deputy chief of protocol for the city of San Francisco and commissioner of the Public Library Commission. Her late husband Ed Strobin was CEO of Banana Republic and one of the founders of Discovery Channel stores.

 

Buy tickets/get more info now