honeyjones

Barbara Trachtenberg is a multidisciplinary modern expressionist artist based in Newton, MA who has shown work at honeyjones on several occasions. She has traveled globally, notably to Cuba, Spain and also notably to Hungary in recent years in the search for answers in piecing together her family history. 

 

Barbara’s mother, Helen (Hajnal) Frisch, was trained as an opera singer in New York City and performed regularly within her family’s social community. In 1938, when Helen was in her early twenties, she traveled to perform in Europe (including in Hungary where she would also visit with relatives) just before a global tipping point at the onset of WWII and was urged to return just weeks after her arrival. Her story is a fascinating one; one that Barbara had shared with gallerist Julie Ayaz over the last year. Remembering this sharing offered a serendipitous opportunity to imagine, present, and ponder the lives of both Eva Zeisel and Hajnal, as they were contemporaries with much in common, including their significances in artistry to transcend social and political strife. There is much more to say and discover about these three women which will hopefully be expressed for and absorbed by, an interested and compassionate honeyjones audience. 

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Barbara's mother, Helen (Hajnal) Frisch, appears courtesy of Library of Congress Records. (below)