Artist Frederick Solomonski
Accession number 1987-396
Frederick Solomonski fled Germany for England in the 1930s, settling in London. In 1940-41 he was interned in the so-called ‘Artists’ camp’, Hutchinson, on the Isle of Man, where he signed the famous ‘Art Cannot Live Behind Barbed Wire’ letter, published in the ‘New Statesman’ and ‘Nation’ in August 1940, pleading for the release of artist internees. Together with 16 other artists, he declared that “Art cannot live behind barbed wire... the sense of grievous injustice done to us, the restlessness caused by living together with thousands of other men... prevent all work and creativity”.
This was an experience with some synergies to that of Elijah when he fled into the wilderness from the death threats of Queen Jezebel. Both Elijah and the interned artists would have felt that they were suffering despite having done no wrong and the sense of despair that enveloped Elijah in the wilderness may well have also enveloped the 17 artists interned at the Hamilton Camp.
Solomonski draws Elijah as he sits under a broom tree in the wilderness and asks to die. The nervous, tense lines used within this drawing conjure an image in which Elijah looks intently inward, his hands knotted together and twitching from his inner turmoil. How many other migrants have been through the experience of Elijah that Solomonski so empathetically depicts?
