Shtetl. Mayn Chorever Heym, a Gedeknish [“My Destroyed Home. A Memorial”]

Following the retreat of Ukranian Nationalist forces from the Russian Red Army in 1919, mass killings of Jews occured. One such pogrom took place in Ryback’s birthplace, Yelizavetgrad (presently, Kirovograd), killing his father. This profound series of lithographs portrays the ravaged Shtetl and expresses the artist’s grief for a world abandoned and now destroyed. See Israel Museum Catalogue, Tradition and Revolution: The Jewish Renaissance in Russian Avant-Garde Art 1912-1928 (1987) no.136 i-xxx (illustrated); C. Roth, Jewish Art col.803.