Folklore de Bolivia (suite of six images)

Walter Sanden

Little is found on the life of German-born Jewish artist Walter Sanden, though it is known that he fled Nazi Germany sometime in the late 1930s for the safety of Bolivia, one of the last countries to accept Jewish refugees before the outbreak of war. Parts of this South American country had long been host to Jewish families with some familial roots dating to the 17th century. When Nazi power rose in Europe, it was therefor a preexisting but lesser-known safe harbor. Sanden settled in La Paz and was involved with the arts scene of the region, which included both Bolivian and Jewish painters, printmakers, and sculptors. He became known for his suites of images of Bolivian cultural practices as well as cartoon illustrations that poked fun of refugees in a place that was fairly alien to the everyday European, but which, in some ways, presented parallels to Jewish culture in the risk of its dissapearing under the encroaching rule of colonialism.

In this suite, Sanden uses lithography to outline six images of traditional Bolivian cultural phenomena, and colors the images with stenciled blocks of earth tones. Titles include "Suri Sicuris" (featuing a display of traditional Andean/Suri musicians), "Lago Titicaca" (Lake Titcaca, featuring a musician and weaver); "Altiplano" (featuring dancers in voluminous skirts); "La Diablada" (featuring traditional costumed dancers celebrating the "Dance of the Devil"), "Cochabambinas" (featuring people of Cochabamba in traditional high-crowned hats); "Chuquisaceno" (featuring two Chuquisacans in Spanish Colonial garb).

A small amount of information on the work of Walter Sanden can be found in "Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge from Nazism," (Plunkett Lake Press, 2018) written by Leo Spitzer, whose parents were among the Jewish refugees living in Bolivia during the war and who collected works by Bolivian and Jewish artists in their time there.