Wallenberg Foundation to Receive Art Donation

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has been selected to receive a donation of fourteen paintings from Austrian artist Armand Frederick Vallée. The paintings composed the series ”Wallenberg” and narrate Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg’s quest to save persecuted people in 1944 Budapest. Following the artist’s passing earlier this year, Liesel Paris, trustee of Mr. Vallée’s estate, contacted the Wallenberg Foundation with the decision.

”The pieces were created in the late 1980s. Yet the fact that the artist has not been able to finish the last painting of the series seems to speak of his difficulty to cope with Wallenberg’s own unfinished story,” stated founder Baruch Tenembaum upon studying the paintings.

During his six months in Hungary’s capital, Wallenberg was responsible for the survival of thousands of people. After the city was liberated by the Soviet Army in January 1945, he was abducted by the Soviets and never heard from again. Despite several accounts of his status as a prisoner over the years, the Soviet and now Russian government has yet to produce a satisfactory explanation as to Wallenberg’s whereabouts.

Armand Vallée’s remarkable work is found in museums, galleries, and major corporate and private collections throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and North Africa. Some of his series of paintings have received special recognition, including honors in the fields of Education and Human Rights. From a deeper understanding of nature and humanity stems the unique expression that is his work.

Vallée was born into an Austrian family of artists, he studied extensively in Munich, Dusseldorf and Vienna. After the war, Armand rebuilt his career, painting and exhibiting in Switzerland, Italy and France. After capturing the Canadian North on canvas, he decided to make Canada his home. Since then, he has painted desert and mountain landscapes, studies of native Indians, contemporary city life, the oil industry in the field, cells under the microscope, and memories of the Holocaust.

The Wallenberg Foundation plans to exhibit the series ”Wallenberg” in its recently inaugurated Cultural Space dedicated to the promotion of Wallenberg and other Rescuers of the Holocaust values through cultural endeavors. The space is located in the ground floor of the Foundation’s New York headquarters.