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The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz
- Dates: March 7, 2003 through June 15, 2003
- Organizing Department:
Prints, Drawings and Photographs
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... more
October 2002: Art created by victims of the Nazi Holocaust in the concentration camps, ghettos and hiding places of World War II, will be brought together for the first time in the exhibition The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz, on view March 7 through June 15, 2003, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz will feature more than 200 works of art made by prisoners at the infamous Nazi death camp, as well as works produced in the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Gurs, and Drancy, and in ghettos such as Lodz and Theresienstadt. The objects range from self-portraits and landscapes to illustrated letters and caricatures, including oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings in ink, charcoal, and pencil.
The artworks were produced by amateur as well as trained artists—some working openly and others in secret. In some cases the works were created as evidence of, and resistance to, the horrors to which the artists bore witness. In other cases, the artists were given assignments by the SS authorities to produce portraits, landscapes, cards, and booklets, and in return, received extra food rations or camp commodities such as cigarettes.
Among the types of works produced at Auschwitz, portraiture was the most common, particularly portraits of other prisoners. The likeness of a fellow prisoner was a testament to existence and an assertion of life in the face of genocide. Restoring humanity to its subject, it became a small gesture of resistance. Portraits also served a very practical function of documenting individuals and were sent out to family members as evidence that a prisoner was still alive.
Decorated letters constituted a type of artwork particular to Auschwitz. Political prisoners had the opportunity to write to relatives only every four or five weeks, and Jewish prisoners were not allowed to write home at all. Prisoners had to find stamps and paper, which were difficult to acquire. Letters were often illustrated by these artists who worked in camp print shops and had access to paper. Text and image were combined on the pre-printed stationery. Most of the letters were innocuous, but some contained symbolic or coded messages.
The artists represented in The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz came from many different countries, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium. Subjected to the humiliation, degradation, physical torture, they worked under the most difficult of circumstances, sometimes on the threshold of death, to give expression to, and seek refuge from, the suffering around them.
Some of the artists survived the camps and are still alive today. One such artist is J[ó]zef Szajna, who now lives in Poland. His powerful ink and pencil drawing Our Biographies (1944–45), is a rare example in which an artist represented the concentration camp experience using an abstract visual style. Szajna evoked a multitude of faceless, nameless prisoners using his thumbprint to indicate each of the many heads. Such a drawing would have been strictly forbidden by camp authorities, so he hid as many as twenty under his mattress in the infirmary.
The exhibition is the result of five years of research and travel by David Mickenberg, former director of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and now director of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, and by Corinne Granof, Assistant Curator at the Block Museum. The Brooklyn Museum of Art’s presentation is organized by Marilyn Kushner, Curator and Chair of the Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.
The works of art were gathered from collections throughout the world, with the majority coming from Poland and Israel. Among the lenders to the exhibition are the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, The Yad Vashem Art Museum in Israel, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück, Germany, and the Museum of Tolerance Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives in Los Angeles, in addition to many private lenders.
A catalogue, copublished by the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and Northwestern University Press, accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition has been presented from September 27 to December 8, 2002 at Northwestern University’s Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art in Evanston, Illinois and January 7 to February 16, 2003, at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, before opening at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in March 2003.
The touring exhibition is made possible, in part, by support from the Federal Republic of Germany and Ellen Phillips Katz and Howard C. Katz. Support for the Brooklyn Museum of Art's presentation is provided, in part, by a generous contribution from Frank and Katherine Martucci. Additional support from Judy and Josh Weston, the Joseph Alexander Foundation, Seymour and Laura Schweber, and Kenneth H. Schweber.Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 2002, 064-66. View Original 1 . View Original 2 . View Original 3
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... more
February 2003: Art created by victims of the Nazi Holocaust (including Jews, resistance fighters, and Gypsies), in the concentration camps, ghettos and hiding places of World War II, will be brought together for the first time in the exhibition The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz, on view March 7 through June 15, 2003, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz will feature more than 200 works of art made by prisoners at the infamous Nazi death camp, as well as works produced in the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Gurs, and Drancy, and in ghettos such as [Lodz] and Theresienstadt. The objects range from self-portraits and landscapes to illustrated letters and caricatures, including oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings in ink, charcoal, and pencil.
The artworks were produced by amateur as well as trained artists—some working openly and others in secret. In some cases the works were created as evidence of, and resistance to, the horrors to which the artists bore witness. In other cases, the artists were given assignments by the SS authorities to produce portraits, landscapes, cards, and booklets, and in return, received extra food rations or camp commodities such as cigarettes.
Among the types of works produced at Auschwitz, portraiture was the most common, particularly portraits of other prisoners. The likeness of a fellow prisoner was a testament to existence and an assertion of life in the face of genocide. Restoring humanity to its subject, it became a small gesture of resistance. Portraits also served a very practical function of documenting individuals and were sent out to family members as evidence that a prisoner was still alive.
Decorated letters constituted a type of artwork particular to Auschwitz. Political prisoners had the opportunity to write to relatives only every four or five weeks, and Jewish prisoners were not allowed to write home at all. Prisoners had to find stamps and paper, which were difficult to acquire. Letters were often illustrated by these artists who worked in camp print shops and had access to paper. Text and image were combined on the pre-printed stationery. Most of the letters were innocuous, but some contained symbolic or coded messages.
The artists represented in The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz came from many different countries, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium. Subjected to the humiliation, degradation, physical torture, they worked under the most difficult of circumstances, sometimes on the threshold of death, to give expression to, and seek refuge from, the suffering around them.
Some of the artists survived the camps and are still alive today. One such artist is Józef Szajna, who now lives in Poland. His powerful ink and pencil drawing Our Biographies (1944–45), is a rare example in which an artist represented the concentration camp experience using an abstract visual style. Szajna evoked a multitude of faceless, nameless prisoners using his thumbprint to indicate each of the many heads. Such a drawing would have been strictly forbidden by camp authorities, so he hid as many as twenty under his mattress in the infirmary.
The exhibition is the result of five years of research and travel by David Mickenberg, former director of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and now director of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, and by Corinne Granof, Assistant Curator at the Block Museum. The Brooklyn Museum of Art’s presentation is organized by Marilyn Kushner, Curator and Chair of the Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.
The works of art were gathered from collections throughout the world, with the majority coming from Poland and Israel. Among the lenders to the exhibition are the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, The Yad Vashem Art Museum in Israel, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück, Germany, and the Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives in Los Angeles, in addition to many private lenders.
A catalogue, co-published by the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and Northwestern University Press, accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition has been presented from September 27 to December 8, 2002 at Northwestern University’s Mary [and] Leigh Block Museum of Art in Evanston, Illinois and January 7 to February 16, 2003, at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, before opening at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in March 2003.
The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz has been organized by the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. Support for the exhibition and its tour has been provided, in part, by the Federal Republic of Germany, Ellen Phillips Katz and Howard C. Katz, Northwestern University’s John R. Lindgren Fund, the President and Provost of Northwestern University, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Support for the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s presentation is provided, in part, by Dime Savings Bank, the Keren Keshet Fund, and Frank and Katherine Martucci. Additional support comes from Judy and Josh Weston, Muss Development Company, the Joseph Alexander Foundation, Seymour and Laura Schweber, and Kenneth H. Schweber. The Forward is media sponsor of the BMA’s presentation. Promotional assistance is provided by the Polish Cultural Institute (www.polishculture-nyc.org).
Press Coverage of this Exhibition
- ARTS BRIEFINGMarch 6, 2003 By Lawrence Van GelderArts Briefing column; President Bush and Laura Bush award 2002 National Medal of Arts to nine recipients in ceremonies in Oval Office; drawings, photos (M)
- ART REVIEW; Holocaust's Dailyness, Depicted by Its VictimsMarch 21, 2003 By GRACE GLUECKGrace Glueck reviews Brooklyn Museum's exhibit of art created by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps; photo (M)
- CLASSICAL MUSIC AND DANCE GUIDEMarch 28, 2003 "A selective listing by critics of The Times of new or noteworthy opera, classical music and dance events this weekend in the Northeast. Opera ''A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.'' Stephen Sondheim's 1973 musical comes pretty close to being an operetta. The New York City Opera, which first presented the work in 1990, has brought back a fresh, reconsidered..."
- ART GUIDEMarch 28, 2003 "A selective listing by critics of The Times of new or noteworthy art, design and photography exhibitions at New York museums and art galleries this weekend. At many museums children under 12 and museum members are admitted free. Addresses, unless otherwise noted, are in Manhattan. Most galleries are closed on Sundays and Mondays, but hours vary and..."
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
