Tibor Spitz

Tibor Spitz (born 1929) is a Jewish artist of Slovak origin and a Holocaust survivor. After escaping from communist Czechoslovakia to the West he lived and worked in Canada and the United States. Currently he lives in Kingston, New York.

Biography

In 1929 Tibor Spitz was born in a little town Dolny Kubin in the high mountains of northern Slovakia, that time part of Czechoslovakia.^[1] His father was a cantor for the Jewish community and mother was a teacher. He survived Holocaust at 15, studied chemistry in Prague and in 1968 escaped to the West to live in Canada and later in the USA. After his career as a scientist he became a professional artist and lecturer on Holocaust.

Tibor Spitz was born in a Slovak part of Czechoslovakia that kept changing from democracy to a fascist Nazi regime followed by the Soviet style communism. Because of his Jewish origin, between the ages 10 to 15 he was not allowed to attend public schools and for three years he was doomed to be either murdered on the spot or deported to a Death camp in nearby Poland. He was 12 when almost all his deported relatives vanished without a trace in Nazi Death & Labor camps. After merely surviving the Nazi era he wanted to study art as did his older brother. However, the already established communist regime arranged for him to study chemistry. After graduations he worked as an engineer, Ph.D. scientist and glass technology expert in Czechoslovak glass industry Research & development institutions. In 1968 he was returning to complete his two years assignment in Cuban glass industry when he and his wife Noemi (during an airplane refueling stop in Canada) escaped to the West. Nine years later they moved from Canada to the USA. 30 years in glass industry had followed 14 years working as a scientist developing hi-tech magnetic recording heads for computers and VCRs.

Suppressed memories of his tragic childhood required an outlet only art could fully provide. Communist country where he lived for two decades would not tolerate it, while political freedoms in the West fully supported his free artistic expressions. Next to his scientific and technical profession Tibor Spitz became simultaneously an active artist as well. The unusually creative artistic environment in both Kingston and nearby Woodstock, NY gradually turned him into a professional artist. As his interest in art continued growing, besides painting he has been also sculpting, making ceramics, woodcarvings and wood burnings. When he discovered that impressionists have not fully exhausted all their artistic possibilities, his painting techniques gradually gravitated toward pointillism and neo-impressionism. Besides initial hounding faces and figurative scenes associated with Holocaust, Judaism and Jewish mystical teachings Kabbalah, he also added fishing scenes, musicians, horses, still-life and landscapes. College courses as well as directions from his mentor Meyer Lieberman were great help in developing his artistic skills.

His art was exhibited in many solo and group shows. Galleries, museums, schools, colleges as well as cultural, scientific, religious and public institutions were interested in both his presentations and exhibitions. During last decades, solo exhibitions of his art were held numerous times in New York State, New Jersey, Canada, in his native Slovakia, in Prague (Czech Republic), Art Society of Kingston (ASK), HCT, and in Gallery SEVEN21. Many others.

In 1997 an American art historian M. Baigell included his biography and reproduction of his painting in his book "Jewish-American artists and the Holocaust". In 2008 a Canadian drama director V. Toth used his paintings in her book "Shalom" issued in both Canada. His achievements were described in dozens of media reports published in several countries. A documentary movie titled "TIBOR SPITZ - Portraits of successful Slovaks abroad" (2015) was shown in both Slovakia, Canada and on Slovak Television.

References

1. Mathew Baigell:JEWISH-AMERICAN ARTISTS AND THE HOLOCAUST. Ruters University Press, 1997 (book) 2. Valeria Tothova: SHALOM. Kanadska zakladna pre umenie a divadlo. Toronto, Canada, 2008 (book) 3. V. & D. Toth: TIBOR SPITZ - Portrety uspesnych Slovakov. Documentary film. Toronske Slovenske Divadlo, 2015 (documentary film) 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGD-ZwcTPF0