News
Invitation to The Lost Expressionist - Nick Yudell, a Photographer Discovered. Tuesday, October 15, 7 pm CDT virtual program via Zoom *
Please join me for the zoom online public presentation of The Lost Expressionist – Nick Yudell, a Photographer Discovered offered by the Jewish Heritage Center of Western Canada, and awarded the Biennial Switzer-Cooperstock Prize in Western Jewish Canadian History. We will share his story, showing how it unfolds through his fine art portraits, experimental photographs, and themes of place, play and air flight in rural and urban Manitoba. Enlisting in the RAF in 1940, Nick Yudell perished a Canadian war hero when his bomber encountered Nazi flak over Tunisia in 1943, leaving an archive of over 300 negatives of fine art photography. We will seek his story through his images of glamour and grit of the 1930's in Western Canada.
The Switzer-Cooperstock Prize at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba was established by the Switzer family to honour the memory of their parents and grandparents.
*5 pm PDT, 6 pm MDT, 8 pm EDT
Morden Legion adds new memorial banners - By Lorne Stelmach, The Winkler Morden Voice, Oct. 12, 2023
The Lost Expressionist on display at Morden gallery - By Lorne Stelmach, The Winkler Morden Voice, Oct. 12, 2023
Morden's 1930s history comes alive in Lost Expressionist Exhibit at PHAC. - By Robyn Wiebe, Pembina Valley Online, Oct. 9, 2023
Morden-born artist and writer, Celia Rabinovitch, shares some history of the city from the 1920s and 30s through an exhibit at the Manitoba Museum - PembinaValleyOnline.com
Gritty and glamorous - Morden photographer’s dramatic, decades-old negatives developed and displayed at Manitoba Museum by Tyler Searle, Winnipeg Free Press - Jun. 20, 2022
The Canadian Jewish News - 80 years after his death, a Canadian war hero’s art finally finds an audience, Podcast/article by Ellin Bessner, Toronto
80 years after his death, a Canadian war hero’s art finally finds an audience
Nick Yudell was a gifted photographer. But at just 26 years old, Yudell, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force fighting Nazis in the Second World War, was killed in action. He and his five crewmates were shot down by German forces over Tunisia.
After he was killed, he left behind a gray hand-painted box full of hundreds of film negatives. Yudell excelled at portraiture and street life, and his unpublished work depicted the everyday world of his hometown of Morden, Manitoba, as well as Winnipeg, where he attended high school.
His family saved that box ever since his death; and this year, thanks to one of his cousins, Celia Rabinovitch, the war hero has received his very own exhibit at the Manitoba Museum. The Lost Expressionist opened in February and runs until December, and today, Rabinovitch joins to explain how she kept a promise to her late father by doing something noteworthy with the family’s treasure trove of art.
The Canadian Jewish News: Nick Yudell: A war hero’s art finds an audience (80 years later)
The Lost Expressionist found: Recently discovered photographs commemorate life in rural Manitoba
The Jewish Radio Hour, July 24/22
Gerry Posner's guest this week is Dr. Celia Rabinovitch, an artist, author and historian who was a Professor and Director of the School of Art, University of Manitoba,.
Winkler Morden Voice - A Glimpse through the Lost Lens of Nick Yudell
by Lorne Stelmach, July 14, 2022
Not Without Honour. - Jewish Post and News August 3, 2022
by Simone Cohen-Scott
Article for the Jewish Heritage Center of Western Canada
The Lost Expressionist – Nick Yudell, A Photographer Discovered – Talk & Tour with Celia Rabinovitch
June 12, 2022 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Festival Hall, Manitoba Museum
Admission: Free
Join curator, Celia Rabinovitch, PhD, MFA, for a talk and a tour of The Lost Expressionist – Nick Yudell, A Photographer Discovered. This exhibition reveals a vibrant world in Manitoba from the Jazz Age through the Great Depression and the rise of World War II. Through dramatic portraits, experimental shots, and images of play, place, and self, The Lost Expressionist captures the feeling of life in Manitoba’s urban, rural, and Jewish communities living in the Canadian west. The exhibition offers a prism of one young man’s life, Nick Yudell, who enlisted in 1940 and became a Canadian World War II hero – an RAF pilot who perished in 1943 during the North African campaign.
Meet in the Manitoba Museum’s new Festival Hall for a talk on the story of this show, followed by a Q&A and a guided tour of The Lost Expressionist by Celia Rabinovitch in the Discovery Room. Hosted by Seema Hollenberg, Director of Research, Collections and Exhibitions, Manitoba Museum.
CTV Morning News - A new exhibit at the Manitoba Museum explores photos gathered by local Manitoban Nick Yudell. Rachel Lagacé has more.
March 2022 - CBC Information Radio - brief interview with Celia Rabinovitch about The Lost Expressionist at the Manitoba Museum.
Reviews
“These are stunning images. Celia’s detective work brings this “lost expressionist” and breathtaking archive to the world. Nick Yudell is as an emerging talent in rural Canada who uses his camera in ways that anticipate our contemporary visual culture of the selfie and although geographically at a great distance, his work parallels the avant-garde European artists of the early 20th century with his experimental and often surreal photographs.”
“Moments of everyday life reflecting a particular time and place transport us to speak to present-day circumstances and sensibilities. Celia Rabinovitch does great justice to the spirit, intent, creativity and world view of Nick Yudell. These marvelous photographs make a public dialogue possible in which the past becomes a vehicle for understanding our present and perhaps provides insight into what lies ahead.”
“Her interpretation brings to life a strong story based on images by a photographer born a century ago. These are people immersed in the enormity of world events that were unfolding around them. Nick Yudell recalls Atget and other artists unknown in their lifetime, but whose hidden works were discovered by other creative artists.”
“These images are exceptional, stunning when one considers how young Yudell was. Although this exhibition tells the tale of a single man, it represents the efforts of many others like Nick Yudell who contributed to winning the Second World War — an important narrative for all to remember. It is a unique and important contribution to a segment of Jewish life and history that has received little attention, and to prairie and Canadian history at a significant time in history, during the Depression, and the history of World War II.”
Nick Yudell’s dramatic photographs capture aspects of life -- spanning the Jazz Age – when he was twelve and received a camera -- and the Great Depression, bridging the 1920s through1930s. His works are rarely candid or documentary, yet he created stunning black and white images that make those times vivid.
Jewish Heritage Centre Exhibit Review - The Jewish Post & News
…with dramatic lighting, Nick Yudell… created images of compelling mystery that created a film noir effect.
He connected with others through his lens, making images that strike the heart.