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Yala H. Korwin — Visual Arts Page
Yala Helen Korwin, a Holocaust survivor, was born on February 7, 1933 in Lvov, Poland and died May 30, 2014 in New York
City. She was a poet, artist, author, essayist, librarian and teacher. She created over 400 paintings
and sculptures, some of which are on display in the Holocaust
Museum in Washington, D.C.
Korwin was a precocious child artist who received
spankings for scribbling on the walls of her parents' apartment. As a high school
student, she excelled at writing imaginative stories
for her Polish Language classes. But the outbreak of World War II brought drastic changes to her life.
Having survived a labor camp in the heart of Germany, and having no place to
return to, she let the winds carry her to France, where she lived as a refugee
for ten years.
A breakthrough came after she emigrated to the United States in 1956 with her
husband Paul Korwin and their two children, Danielle and Robert. In 1965 she
enrolled at Queens College, where she majored in French Literature with a minor
in Art. She eventually earned her
BA degree Magna Cum Laude, then a Masters degree Summa Cum Laude. She went on to
author six books.
Korwin's first published work was a library tool, the two-volume Index to
Two-Dimensional Art Works in Books, published in 1981 by Scarecrow Press. Her
first collection of poems, To Tell the Story: Poems of the Holocaust, was published in 1987 by the
Holocaust Library. Her poetry has also been published in literary journals,
anthologies, textbooks, and has been set
to classical music.
Korwin considered herself to be a more traditional poet and especially favored the sonnet, which,
she said, allows the poet to say all one needs in just fourteen lines, without
unnecessary verbosity. Her books are available through amazon.com,
barnesandnoble.com, and other major book retailers.
Dawn, a watercolor
Dusk, a watercolor
Thanksgiving Mood, a watercolor
Morning Marina, a watercolor
Evening Marina, a watercolor
Frenzy, a cardboard print
Hunters, a hydrocal
And So On, a watercolor
History, colored pencils and collage
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