[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]
POLLAK, Max [1886–1970]
“Wien, Notsteg Uber den Donaukanal” / Vienna, Emergency Pier Over the Danube Canal
ca1917
mixed technique intaglio / ed. unknown
25 3/8 inches by 31 inches (image)
Born in Prague, while it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Pollak was educated in Vienna. This print was part of the Austrian record of World War I — think of it as something like a war-time WPA. The Nazis subsequently destroyed much of Pollak’s work as “degenerate Jewish art”. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1927.
This poignant and history-laden work is on loan from the collection of Temple Emanu-El.