Description
Object description
image: A scene of mourning. A group of Jewish men, women and children weep and mourn over a mound of corpses. In the
background are further large heaps of corpses and burning buildings. The mourning men wear prayer shawls and pillbox hats and carry Torah
scrolls; the women wear headscarves or shawls over their hair.
Label
Kestelman was the son of European Jewish immigrants. He studied at the Royal College of Art and lived and worked in
London. 'Lama Sabachthani' was painted at a time when news of the Nazi concentration and death camps was starting to filter through to
British society. Although geographically distant, the impact was keenly felt in many quarters. The title is taken from the opening verse
of Psalm 22:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
The psalm continues with a complex dialogue that restates the omnipotence of God and yet also elucidates present torment and anguish:
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shrivelled;
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
The tension for the psalmist is in the possibility that God might not rescue, and applied to this context where intervention seemed neither feasible nor imminent, it questions the very rule and presence of God. The awfulness of such a possibility and its unthinkable consequences, as well as the horror of their immediate circumstances, is writ large in these figures. Their pleading is set against a backdrop of burnt cities: dense smoke and clouds almost smother the canvas.
IWM holds an important collection of work by official artists who were witnesses at the liberation of Belsen. Artists such as Leslie Cole, Doris Zinkeisen, Eric Taylor and Mary Kessel responded to the overwhelming sights with images that sought to convey detail and narrative. Kestelman's painting begins to address the moral consequences of the events, the role of nations and individuals, and the unspeakable consequences of organized evil.