Library and Archive Reading Rooms
View by appointment- Created by
- Else Meidner 1901–1987
- Recipient
- Dr J. P. Hodin
- Title
- Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin
- Date
- 7 October 1973
- Format
- Document - correspondence
- Collection
- Tate Archive
- Acquisition
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate, 2006. Accrual presented by Annabel Hodin, 2020
- Reference
- TGA 20062/7/128/2/34
Description
[Transcription/translation]
7 October 1973
My dear Berlioz,
Enclosed the review of your book. Please do keep it.
There is no such thing as Jewish art, and I am not a Jewish artist. Born in Berlin and raised on German art and culture, I shall not let Hitler (the prick) win by allowing myself to be branded as such!!! There is one human religion, but I do not stem from orthodox Jews. My father was a liberal Jew. Heine was Jewish, and lived out his last years in Paris, but he remained a great German artist. When Socrates was asked to what land he belonged, he said: ‘I belong to the world.’ And I say: I belong to ‘the art of the world.’ In closing I call out to you: ‘And let us speak again of Cézanne, as we once did in May.’
Yours with kind regards,
Else Meidner
Archive context
- Papers of Josef Paul Hodin TGA 20062 (407)
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- Working papers relating to artistic, cultural and historic figures TGA 20062/7 (106)
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- Else Meidner TGA 20062/7/128 (29)
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- Numbered correspondence from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/7/128/2 (17)
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- Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/7/128/2/34