Works
  • Si Lewen, The Parade Drawing 51, ca. 1950
    The Parade Drawing 51, ca. 1950
  • Si Lewen, The Parade Drawing 37, ca. 1950
    The Parade Drawing 37, ca. 1950
  • Si Lewen, The Parade Untitled Drawing, ca. 1950
    The Parade Untitled Drawing, ca. 1950
  • Si Lewen, The Parade Drawing 20, ca. 1950
    The Parade Drawing 20, ca. 1950
Biography
Si Lewen at the opening of the Si Lewen Art Museum. Bethlehem, PA. Image courtesy of the Si Lewen Estate.
Si Lewen at the opening of the Si Lewen Art Museum. Bethlehem, PA. Image courtesy of the Si Lewen Estate.
Si Lewen (1918–2016) was a Polish-American artist best known for The Parade, an extended series of drawings exploring war, violence, and the human condition. Born in Lubin, Poland, Lewen moved with his family to Berlin in 1920, where he studied drawing with Max Adron, a student of Paul Klee and the Bauhaus tradition. In 1933, following the rise of the Nazi regime, Lewen and his family fled to France before immigrating to the United States in 1935. Settling in New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League.
 
In 1942, Lewen volunteered for the U.S. Army and, drawing on his knowledge of German, joined the Ritchie Boys, a specialized unit of German-speaking soldiers. His wartime experiences, including witnessing the aftermath of the liberation of Buchenwald in 1945, profoundly shaped his artistic practice. These experiences informed The Parade, conceived in 1950 and published in 1957 as The Parade: A Story in 55 Drawings. 
 
Following the war, Lewen continued to develop his artistic practice while teaching at Cooper Union and the New School, where he remained until 1980. In 1976, he began withdrawing from the art world, eventually retreating from public artistic life. Despite falling into relative obscurity, he continued to make art, maintaining a creative practice that extended into the final years of his life. In 2024, The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired The Parade and presented the epic cycle in its 2026–27 exhibition There Are No Words: Si Lewen's Parade.
Exhibitions
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