YONAT VAKS
Five Generations.
This series is an exploration of five generations of women in my family.
Through old photos I found in my grandmother’s drawers and the stories she told me, I painted the lives of the women in my family that I’ve never met.
* How does their story connect to mine?
* How much of my beliefs about myself and the world have been passed down from them?
* How was each woman affected by the times and place she lived in?
* In an rapidly changing world, what connects us to past generations?
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This is the story of their lives and the untold history of women.
Remember us like this
oil on canvas
97cm x 148cm
2013
Available
This is a painting of my grandmothers sister and her two children sitting outside their house in Poland. My grandmother never had family albums. She had two drawers in the living room full of old photos. This is a painting of one of those photos. All of them were killed in the Holocaust. My grandmother can’t remember the names of the children. The thoughts that were with me while painting this were about the fragility of life. A photo is a moment in a person’s life. Painting this moment while knowing the future of these people is like traveling in a time machine of generations.
My future is my past
oil on canvas
130cm x 89cm
2013
SOLD
This is a painting of my grandmothers sister and her two children sitting outside their house in Poland. My grandmother never had family albums. She had two drawers in the living room full of old photos. This is a painting of one of those photos. All of them were killed in the Holocaust. My grandmother can’t remember the names of the children. The thoughts that were with me while painting this were about the fragility of life. A photo is a moment in a person’s life. Painting this moment while knowing the future of these people is like traveling in a time machine of generations.
The flowers I gathered during my journey to here
oil on linen
116cm x 89cm
2013
SOLD
This painting is based on one of the only photos of my great grandmother who I’m named after. She ran a small convenient store in a small village in Polonia. During the first years of World War 2, Jews were only allowed to consume certain products and someone in the village told the S.S. that she had products that were forbidden in her store. My great grandmother heard that they were coming to arrest her and knew that my grandmother was at home. She ran home to protect her daughter and was arrested and sent to Auchwitz. My grandmother lived her whole life with guilt that her mother was caught because of her.
You are present in my thoughts
oil on canvas
40cm x 50cm
2015
SOLD
This is a painting of my grandmother as a young woman in Israel. In the background is her sister that mas murdered in the holocaust. Her sister was the best seamstress of the village. People from all around would come especially to her.
The future is yours
oil on canvas
61cmx46cm
2015
SOLD
This is a painting of my grandmother’s sister and her daughter. They managed to escape to Russia and come to Israel.