Lasar Segall

Otherness, the feeling of being a stranger, is something that permeated Lasar Segall’s entire life and work: born into a Jewish family in Vilnius, he spent his student years in Germany and eventually became a celebrated artist in Brazil. During Segall’s childhood, Vilnius was part of the Russian Empire. Jews had limited rights and were denied full citizenship. Pogroms against Jews, the violent oppression and destruction of their places of worship and homes, were widespread. Segall described this as follows:

“The people of Vilnius, especially the Jews, suffered many horrors in the past, including bloody pogroms and calamities that pale in comparison to everything that has befallen the city since. It is difficult, indeed almost impossible, to describe these things in detail, for there are no adequate words for this situation, and it takes seeing it in person, to experience, in its terrible reality, the immense suffering that threatens the lives of thousands of condemned souls.”

In the painting Pogrom, the artist was clearly concerned with oppression and the experience of violence, but also with his own family history. Segall’s painting dates from 1937, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, at a time when discrimination was a highly topical issue. Segall has depicted a group of people of different ages and genders. They are lying on ruins, perhaps those of a synagogue – a Torah scroll in Hebrew script is visible. Although the people, especially their faces, look asleep, it is still clear that they are dead. Compared to Segall’s earlier work, the colours are no longer bright and vibrant. Instead, browns and greys dominate the palette, emphasising the horror of the pogrom. Nevertheless, Segall added small glimmers of hope: a bird flies over the scene and a small plant grows in the lower left-hand corner.