![]() The group was met with piles of unburied dead bodies and thousands of survivors barely able to walk or talk. The youth group was expecting to board survivors onto a plane and help them transition to a better life in Israel, unprepared for the extent of terror happening at the camp. ![]() “He just saw horrors that seared in his mind forever,” Duke said. Skondovitch celebrated his bar mitzvah, a traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony, in a rundown synagogue while tiles from the ceiling fell from nearby bombs.Īt the end of the war, he felt the need to help those most affected, and at 18 years old he joined a youth group to bring aid to thousands of people newly liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. At 12 years old, he was one of the thousands of children who were evacuated from London and sent to live with families in the countryside for safety. Skondovitch was born in 1927 in London shortly before the start of World War II, with two Russian Jewish immigrant parents. “It made me happy to think that we’ve done something nice to help with keeping his memory alive and just to keep his legacy moving on.” ![]() “It really has been a lifelong goal to get it in more of a public eye … It was really overwhelming to walk in, it kind of felt like he was there with you and it’s cheesy, but it did feel a little bit like he was looking down and he was sort of proud of us for what we’ve done,” Duke said. A collection of abstract expressionist works by Alfred Skondovitch on display at the Greenly Art Space in Signal Hill on April 28, 2023. The result is a moving exhibit, “Skondovitch: A Legacy” currently in Signal Hill’s nonprofit gallery. Twelve years after Skondovitch passed away, his daughter Lara Duke has brought a small portion of his 1,400-piece portfolio to Southern California for the first time, hoping to continue his legacy and share his talent. Though art critics have equated his work to some of the most revered painters in the abstract expressionist movement, Skondovitch traded the world’s recognition for family connections, beautiful landscapes and a supportive community in Fairbanks, Alaska where he lived out the last decades of his life. The collection of abstract expressionist paintings at Greenly Art Space in Signal Hill are as colorful and moving as the life of the man who made them.Īlfred Skondovitch lived on two different continents, survived World War II, fought fires in Alaska, unknowingly helped Picasso with a sculpture, once led a parade, gave parenting advice to Robert De Niro Sr., raised two children and was an avid storyteller.
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