Lost Flowers

In the 1970s, Weisel, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, made a series of abstract paintings inspired by her father’s tattoo from Auschwitz. The central rectangle in this painting resembles a palimpsest blotting out what hides underneath. The Hebrew word Shema (Hear)—the first word of the prayer (Deuteronomy 6:5) that is the Jewish profession of faith—can be seen but seems on the point of dissolution. Weisel’s father’s tattoo number is faintly visible in the light-colored border on the left side of the blackened rectangle.