Karen Gunderson's monumental charcoal works, exploring the theme
of safety in friendship within the context of moral courage, are
presented at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion,
One West 4th Street, from March 13 through June 21, 2000.
Gunderson utilizes the emotional and symbolic texture of intense
darkness and illumination to evoke images of rescue and
resistance, as demonstrated by the Danes and Bulgarians during
the Holocaust. Filtering eyewitness historical records through
her own empathetic imagination, Gunderson creates images of
altruism to convey a universal legacy of historical and ethical
courage in the cause of human freedom. Gunderson's installation
includes monumental seascapes evoking the rescue of Danish Jews
by boat to Sweden, as well as iconic portraits of the kings of
Denmark and Bulgaria who led their nations' rescues of their
Jewish citizens. Gunderson explains, "I believe that art can
inspire and heal. I hope these paintings and drawings will
contribute to a legacy that w