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Never Forget
Paper Clips + Klimt Paintings at LACMA
Six million is a very big number. The documentary Paper Clips chronicles the quest of students in rural Tennessee to give meaning to the enormity of that number. Attempting to collect 6 million paper clips, the students ended up collecting something greater: the stories attached to those paper clips. For the students, each paper clip represented a real person, and a tangible connection to history, giving meaning to what is often a sterile number in textbooks. The students eventually housed their collection in a German rail car, now a moving memorial to tolerance.
If every paper clip tells a story, so too does every picture. The five Gustav Klimt paintings, now on exhibit at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, tell one family's Holocaust story. When the Nazis annexed Austria, the prominent Bloch-Bauer family fled, and the Austrian government confiscated their valuable artwork, including these paintings. Perfect for museum-phobic kids, this small exhibit showcases two portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer, including one in the rare "gold style." We'd studied this painting in Art History classes, but nothing prepared us for seeing the dazzling canvas in person. Our daughters also loved the tranquil landscape Beech Woods, that led them down leaf-strewn paths on an autumn day. Seen together, these paintings act as a visual paper clip, linking this Jewish family's story to another generation.
Want to know what we learned from watching this film with our kids? Here are our buttery bits of wisdom:
- Most films about the Holocaust are too intense for children under 12, but Paper Clips is appropriate for kids third grade and older. It is slow, but the story it tells -- how one teacher's good idea inspired an international phenomenon -- is worth the effort. Use the fast forward button to keep the kids interested.
- The students decided to collect paper clips after discovering they were invented in Norway. Citizens wore paper clips on their lapels during the war, as a protest against Hitler.
- How big is six million? If a skilled typist worked 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and could type 80 words per minute, he could type 96,000 names per week. It would take more than 14 months to list the name of every Jew who perished in the Holocaust.
Want to know how to talk to your kids about the movie? Here are some conversation starters:
- Teachers in a Southern Christian community wanted to tackle the problem of diversity. As viewers, their valiant efforts force us to confront our own stereotypes about Southerners. Ask your kids to think about different prejudices they, or others they know, might have.
Five Paintings From the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
April 4 - June 30, 2006
Contact: 323-857-6000 or www.lacma.org
Hours: Closed Wednesdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas
Mon., Tues., Thurs. 12-8; Friday 12-9, Sat., Sun. 11-8
Free after 5 pm, Kids under 18 free.
Time Commitment: 30 minutes
Want to know how we did this adventure with our kids? Here are our buttery bits of wisdom:
- Don't miss Klimt's magnificent paintings during their brief visit at LACMA. LA Times critic Christopher Knight calls Adele Bloch-Bauer I "among the greatest early Modern paintings now in the U.S."
- Learning the history behind the paintings deepened the experience for our kids. Take five minutes and watch some of the film about the legal struggle to recover the paintings.
- Since the exhibit consists of just five paintings in a single room, even small children can come along. The galleries are likely to be crowded, especially on a weekend, because of the limited run.
- The gift store is stocked with Klimt paraphenalia. Find a set of postcards and show the kids his other masterpieces, especially The Kiss. Younger kids will like the great picture book on sale called Klimt and his Cat by Berenice Capatti.
- Adele is the only woman that Klimt painted more than once. She died in 1925 of menengitis, before the Nazis invaded, at the age of 43.
- You can lighten the mood by dropping into the Ettore Sottsass exhibit, on view at LACMA until June 11. Our kids enjoyed going through the two large galleries full of zany furniture and silverware.
- COOL FACT: Notice how Adele's hands are posed in a strange manner? She is hiding a deformed finger.
Want to help your kids know their city? Here are some tidbits to help them learn more:
- Two of the five paintings are of Adele Bloch-Bauer, one of Klimt's benefactresses and a member of a socially prominent Austrian family. When the Nazis marched through Vienna, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer fled the country and the Austrian government confiscated these paintings, which he had bequeathed to his neice Maria Altmann and her siblings. The famous works hung in the Austrian Galleries for over sixty years until Altmann, who fled Austria for Los Angeles in 1938, sued the Austrian government to reclaim the paintings. After a 7 year legal battle, the paintings have been returned to Altmann, who is now 90. She still lives in Los Angeles.
- Visitors from all over the country are flocking to LACMA to see the Klimt paintings. These five paintings are on view only until the end of June, at which point they will be put up for sale. Art watchers wait with baited breath to see who will snatch up these masterpieces. Will one, or all of them, stay in LA?
- Vienna at Klimt's time was the center of the artistic and intellectual world, attracting talent from from Freud to Schoenberg. Klimt was a member of the Vienna Secession movement, a group of artists interested in moving away from traditional forms of art.
- Los Angeles has a wealth of excellent museums devoted to Jewish heritage: The Skirball Cultural Center, The Museum of Tolerance, and The Museum of the Holocaust. Check out their websites for excellent family programming.
- LACMA's NextGen program offers free membership for kids under 18: It's a great way to get your Klimt-ettes to feel connected to culture in LA.
- LACMA has a great cafeteria, as well as a nice sit-down restaurant.
Focus on the Holocaust - click here to see our selection at the Kids Off the Couch store at Amazon.com. We recommend that parents watch these films with their children; the images and subject matter are disturbing, no matter your age.
Click here for related reading and see our selection of books at the Kids Off the Couch store at Amazon.com. Parents should read these books with their kids as the subject matter is disturbing.
- http://www.iklimt.com/iklimt/index.html A beautiful website that teaches about Gustav Klimt by combining biography and art;
- http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/klimt/index.aspx Learn more about Klimt and other Austrian artists by exploring LACMA's impressive collection of Jugendstil artwork;
- http://www.lamuseumoftheholocaust.org/ This museum was started by Holocaust survivors and provides ongoing educational and cultural offerings;
- http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/pp.asp?c=arLPK7PILqF&b=249627 An excellent museum that has a powerful Holocaust exhibit, some Anne Frank memorabilia, and important exhibits on the LA riots, and human rights abuses around the world;
- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/thismonth/index1.shtm Public Broadcasting's site offers detailed curiculuum for parents who want to teach about genocide in general, and the Holocaust in particular;
- http://www.skirball.org/ A wonderful museum to visit and use as a resource. Check out their varied programming for familes and adults.