Portrait of the Month
Aleksander Kuliseiwicz
This beautiful portrait was created by artist Oliviannah S. at Austin High School in El Paso, Texas. In the workshop, led by the award-winning teacher Shane Wiggs, the students created portraits using a woodcut technique, leading to beautiful and striking details different from the portraits created at our typical workshops. The gorgeous detail of this portrait of Aleksander displays energy and movement, alluding to the music he made while imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Students around the world have reflected on their experience drawing Aleksander’s portrait and learning about how he kept culture alive in the camps.
“One of the things I will definitely remember is that every individual that fell victim to the Holocaust had his or her own remarkable story. While drawing Aleksander, a stranger, I feel like I got to know a part of him.”
— Jenny B.
“He used the arts to document and speak out against the horrors of the Holocaust. His example and my experience drawing him showed me that we can use art in different ways to handle difficult times, both as a personal coping tool and as a way to combat negativity and hopelessness.”
—Samantha W.
About the subject
Aleksander Kuliseiwicz's passion was writing music. He was arrested by the Gestapo for his antifascist opinions, and spent six years at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. While he was there, he wrote 54 songs, mostly about the horrendous treatment of prisoners at the camp. When he was liberated, he remembered all those songs, and songs by fellow prisoners. After the war, Aleksander became a collector, gathering music, poetry, and artwork of camp prisoners. It was a monumental study of culture in the concentration camps, and the role of music as a survival tool for the prisoners. View more portraits of Aleksander.
About the workshop
This portrait was made at Austin High School in El Paso, Texas