"War Pieta" by Max Ginsburg, contributed by Leah Lourenco (2025)
At first sight, Max Ginsburg’s War Pieta may not seem comforting to someone experiencing loss. Fires rage in the background, and the foreground presents a gruesome scene of a mother holding her son, killed in war. Surprisingly, when I first encountered this painting in 2020, I found the mother’s expression to be incredibly comforting. For a person experiencing loss in any context, the emotions can be overwhelming, but people aren’t always able to fully express those emotions. The image of the mother screaming out while cradling her son’s bandaged head presents what I view as the ultimate expression of sorrow and grief. There is no other artistic medium that could have so perfectly captured this moment. In a painting, we are forced to sit with the protagonist at this moment and, for the viewer, there is no moment after this one. Observe the creases in the woman’s face, the furrow of her brow, and the way her mouth is forced open by her pain. At times when people feel that they cannot express their grief to the fullest extent, I have found that it can feel comforting to observe a depiction of someone who is experiencing and displaying extreme emotion.
