After a Full Day a Bath is Prepared by the Chambermaid
When Judith Oppenheimer, external relations manager for the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel, there was one thing she felt she had to see: Nelly Toll’s Cinderella.
Despite language barriers and a swarm of other visitors, Oppenheimer somehow found herself in the curator’s office personally requesting to see the piece. Perhaps it’s a testament to the power of Toll’s work – the ability to cross the boundaries of language, age or time.
Oppenheimer wanted to see the work for a specific reason. In her role she’ll help to present Toll’s work to central Ohio when the galleries host Imagining a Better World: The Artwork of Nelly Toll from Sept. 15-Dec. 30.
“It’s not a story that a lot of people know,” Oppenheimer says. “I happen to be Jewish, it’s a story that I never knew about.”
Toll was born in 1935 and grew up in Poland during World War II. She and her mother went into hiding during Nazi occupation in 1943. Forbidden from leaving the room in which they were hidden, Toll’s mother managed to supply her with a set of watercolors to pass the time.
Careful not to spill a drop of paint or water to avoid detection, Toll painted a series of watercolors in direct contrast to her life at the time. The distinctly childlike style shows Toll living a normal life, a life before the war or a fantasy of what life could be.
Nelly Toll
Those paintings include images of Cinderella, schoolrooms and walks outside. While some of the subject matter may seem like ordinary activities, they were extraordinary dreams for a young girl in hiding. Along with the drawings, Toll kept a diary detailing her life at the time.
“The story is so relatable, especially to children, because these watercolorings are very childlike,” Oppenheimer says. “You can see yourself there or you can imagine yourself there.”
Toll and her mother survived the war, though the rest of their family did not. She eventually immigrated to the U.S. where she has continued to paint, worked as an educator and art therapist, and received a Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, where she currently teaches.
“She is still with us and she speaks publicly about her experience and talks about tolerance and anti-bullying,” Oppenheimer says. “It’s deeply personal for, I think, all citizens of the world.”
Toll’s work is on permanent display at Yad Vashem and her story has been adapted into her award-winning memoir, Behind the Secret Window, which is currently being made into a documentary film.
The Decorative Arts Center’s exhibition will include more than 40 of Toll’s works, curated predominantly from the approximately 60 paintings she made during her time in hiding. One of the center’s four galleries is dedicated to her recent work, which takes a more abstract expressionist style.
To tell Toll’s story, the paintings are accompanied by panels with information which gives perspective into her life at the time. Parallel panels explain what was simultaneously taking place in the war and the rest of Europe.
All Alone
This isn’t the first time Toll’s work has been shown in Ohio. The Massillon Museum was the first to exhibit her work and Alexandra Coon, the museum’s executive director, inspired the Decorative Arts Center to take on Toll’s work.
“All of the exhibitions have a pretty obvious – at least to me – tie to central Ohio,” Oppenheimer says. “This exhibit is a huge step from our normative. Nelly’s not from Lancaster, Nelly’s not from Ohio.”
Despite that, Toll is actively involved with presenting her story to the central Ohio community. On Oct. 28 she’ll give an artist lecture at the United Methodist Church in Lancaster. The following day, Toll will speak to seventh-grade students from Lancaster City Schools.
Additionally, the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio, in coordination with the Jewish Federation of Columbus, will present a screening of the documentary Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness, which tells the story of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved thousands of lives by signing visas for Jewish refugees during the war. The film is accompanied by a 10-minute preview of the same name.
The two films share a similar goal to the Decorative Arts Center’s show: to inspire others to do good in the world. It’s a sentiment that Oppenheimer has had in mind since the center first planned to present Imagining a Better World.
“I’m hoping that everyone walks away touched in some way about Nelly’s story,” she says. “By her optimism in her fellow man and the very simplistic message that she shares, that it can be a better world and it probably can start with each of us being considerate and kind.”
Cameron Carr is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
