Exhibit Features Fabric Art from Holocaust Survivor
Held at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum in Washington, D.C., “Sewn in America” includes two story cloths created by Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz.
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A meaningful exhibit has opened in Washington, D.C. called “Sewn in America: Making – Meaning – Memory.” The exhibit explores the history of sewing in America from the 1700s to today through a variety of textiles including pictorial embroideries, quilts, and garments. Held at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum in Washington, D.C. the exhibit includes two story cloths created by Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, who used fabric and intricate stitches to tell her daughters the story of the family she loved and lost.
Krinitz passed away in 2001 at age 74, and her daughters formed a non-profit called Art of Remembrance two years later to honor and showcase her fabric art, which wasn’t art to Krinitz at all, but rather a cathartic way of processing her loss, stitch by literal stitch. Esther’s two story cloths featured in the DAR exhibit are “Coming to America” and “We Fled Across the Fields.” One of the pieces shares Esther’s arrival in America in front of the Statue of Liberty and the other is a haunting memory of a labor camp she (and her sister) witnessed in her village.
One of Esther’s daughters, Bernice Steinhardt, who lives in Washington, shared the impact of how her mother used needle art to thread together her personal story of war, loss and perseverance as an immigrant. “My mother was a completely self-taught artist and we’re so lucky she depicted her journey through her beautiful needlework,” Steinhardt said. “Her art was personal—she created it just for her daughters—but she would be so happy to know that her art works, including her memories the family she lost and the war she experienced, are inspiring others to share their own stories in their own ways today.”
Steinhardt shared, “I grew up with my mother’s stories when I was very young, essentially, they were adventure stories of how my mother saved herself and her sister. As I got older, I came to appreciate just how deep this story was in the way she was processing her loss and the loss of her family and remembering them. She never stopped thinking of them. Every day, she thought of her mother, but it wasn’t until she was in her 50’s and wanted my sister and me to see what her home was like. She was a gifted storyteller and a talented seamstress, sewer, knitter, and crocheter, and turned to fabric, needle and thread creating two pictures of her childhood home with one for me and one for my sister.
“Ten years later, she decided to go back to these memory pictures and created a collection of 36 images. Over the past decades, the pieces have traveled all over the country including The Breman in Atlanta, the Smithsonian, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Houston Holocaust Museum among others. The entire exhibit of Esther’s work with 36 narrative pieces can also be seen at The American Visionary Art Museum (www.artandremembrance.org) in Baltimore, Md., through 2030.”
She added, “I’m incredibly proud that my mother found a way to share her memories in an enduring way and she was able to develop a talent that she didn’t know she had in a form of expression that is unique. She left this as a legacy for me, my sister and our children and I will always be incredibly grateful that she was able to create this and pass it on. I only regret she didn’t live long enough to see the impact it has had on the world at-large beyond her immediate family.”
In addition to Esther’s story cloths, “Sewn in America” features more than 100 objects from wooden spools and silver thimbles from the 18th and 19th centuries to the 21st century. The DAR Museum, located in the NSDAR Headquarters, collects, preserves, and interprets objects used and created in American homes “Sewn in America: Making – Meaning – Memory” will be on display through December 2024. Museum admission is free. For more information, please visit www.dar.org.
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