ANTIQUE AUCTION WIN - HOLOCAUST SCULPTURE w/NO SIGNATURE?

I won this yesterday at a auction held in a antique store that was going out of business. The auctioneer called it a holocaust sculpture & I ended up paying $70 for it.
But when I got it home & looked it over, I couldn't find a signature anywhere. It certainly looks like it could be a holocaust sculpture (I live in Miami and we have one here)
Does anyone recognize the piece or know who the artist is?
Is it a sculpture or just from a mold?
Any help is appreciated.

 

It certainly looks like it could be a holocaust sculpture (I live in Miami and we have one here)

Wait ?
What ?
You have a Holocaust Sculpture , in Miami ??? This sculpture ???

You deal with a subject like this....you should really read your post before hitting send !!!

 

We have a holocaust memorial sculpture - about 100x bigger than this one. But the smaller statues around it remind me of this one.
Some examples:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertzijlstra/5867265311

https://www.google.com/search?q=mia...HJCYKHTWcBMsQ9C8IHw&biw=1047&bih=560&dpr=1.38

 

And this is another of the smaller statues around the large arm reaching to the sky - and looks alot like the faces on mine:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56522790@N00/243556026/in/photostream/

 

I am numb with the horror of it .. the utter anguish of it ever happening .. .

 

Horrifying, and still happening to other people in other parts of the world. The extremely dark and twisted side of humankind.

 

Every year, on September 29 in Ukraine people commemorate the victims of mass executions of Jews in Babyn Yar (outskirts of Kyiv). Below is the photo of the monument.


But the world knows very little about HOLODOMOR (killing by starvation, also man-made Famine, Terror-Famine/Famine-Genocide/Great Famine/Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33) in Ukraine in 1932-1933. About 8 million (the exact number is still unknown) were starved to death by Stalin.

 

My parents told me about that. Stalin was another very twisted person, with a very dark side. Too many rulers are either narcissists or psychopaths, no compassion or wisdom.

 

The clay used is heavily grogged, i.e. It has lots of ground up fired clay in it giving a rough textured surface. We call it crank clay here in uk. It might be a one off piece made as a solid sculpture, when clay is fired you have to hollow it out before firing which has happened here. Alternatively this might be a press moulded piece where you press clay into an existing mould and finish off by adding details to the surface. There usually wouldn't be a big run cast in this way. Press moulding is very different from a factory slip cast piece where liquid clay is poured into a plaster mould many times i.e. Doulton figurines. Sorry can't help with Sculptor.

 

The utter horror, hopelessness, anguish, helplessness and any other emotion one could add is I think more than I could/would want to deal with at this stage of my life.....even though it continues today......I would be a mere puddle if I ever were to actually see that huge "hand" with those masses struggling on it...........it is mesmerizing with overpowering emotion....

 

Yes, tears would flow at the sight of it .. just seeing it here has done a number on me, even my name is making me sick right now.

 

The arm is something - but the statues around it; from a old, skin & bones, naked couple holding each other to a child crying for it's mother to bodies just laying on the ground

These are all around the arm in a circle - as well as the ones shown in links of parents handing their child to strangers climbing the arm; hoping their child will escape.

The first time I visited it, it stuck with me long after leaving. It affects everyone

 

Nothing has changed especially in this age of Hollywood vs substance.

 

This is haunting, I could not have it. It seems very well done and has captured the feeling.

 

I don't see a holocaust connection. I have known auctioneers to get a bit "creative"with their descriptions to help sales. I think it's hand sculpted one of a kind and possibly a student piece?

 

Which method do you think was used for it?
Thanks

 

The two are not mutually exclusive. We call bronze pieces sculpture, even though they have to be cast using a mold & multiples can be made. My immediate thought was that yours is molded. When I read Houseful's comments, differentiating between press molding v. slip casting, realized that press molding definitely looks like the technique used.

I see the resemblance to some of the Holocaust memorial work, but don't quite get that feeling from your piece. My gestalt is that they represent, in stereotypical ways, people from different 'races', for lack of a better word, although not sure who the one with the distorted mouth would be. More like a theatrical mask, that one. One definitely looks African to me; guy with long beard could be meant for Asian; woman with long hair, Native American. One or 2 others European. I see 5; is that all of them?

 

That's a interesting idea! But why the look of fear/desperation?

 

More likely to be a press moulded piece as I can’t see the usual tool marks that are used when hollowing out before firing