Near the synagogue

From the cycle "Life in a shtetl" (shtetl - a Jewish village).

Ilex Beller was born in 1914 in Grodzisko, a Jewish village in southern Poland. In 1926 he emigrated to Antwerp. Only at the age of 59 he managed to fulfill his cherished dream - to paint and devote himself entirely to art. Based on his childhood memories, Ilex Beller conveys to us in his paintings the essence of a vanished world, the world of a thousand-year Jewish life on Polish soil, a world destroyed by the massacres of Jews by the Nazis. He belongs to the last generation of Polish Jews and still knows life in the town; his testimony is invaluable for future generations. The artist is able to convey in colors all the diversity of reality in an admirable manner. Bright, light colors - happiness and solidarity; dark colors - fear and need. The artist of memories - he revives for us anew the shtetl shtetl seen through the eyes of a teenager, a mixture of reality and the unreal. His colors delight us, his memories of Jewish holidays in Poland resonate among Jews of all countries. His deep humanity and hidden humor touch upon topics common to all people.