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your family, for being here and for your support,” said Wojciech Soczewica, the Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
In the Prussian Blue series, Yishai Jusidman tackles a difficult question: can contemporary art contribute to the collective memory of past atrocities, and if so, how?
„In the early 1950’s, the esteemed cultural critic Theodor Adorno argued that ‘to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.’ His admonition endured. By extension, painters, too, were implicitly discouraged from dabbling with the Holocaust. The gap between the event and the possibility of its representation, we were told, was unbridgeable. Yet with the passing of time and generations, the imperative to suitably address the Holocaust through art has only grown more urgent,” wrote Yishai Jusidman in the introduction text to the exhibition.
The most important part of the series consists of unique naturalistic reproductions of photographs of gas chambers in several German Nazi camps, such as Auschwitz, Majdanek, Stutthof, and Mauthausen, as well as the spaces of extermination centers, including Treblinka and Sobibór.
„While laboring to depict emblematic gas chambers, I endeavored to minimize subjective distortion and limited my palette to three coloring agents, each of which bears a direct connection to the genocide: prussian blue paint, diatomaceous earth, and flesh-colored paints a muted reminder of those murdered within the spaces I depict,” one reads.
The ethical and moral dimensions layered in the aesthetic that propels Prussian Blue will be uniquely deepened when brought forth from within the grounds of the former camp of Auschwitz. While the passing of time relentlessly erodes memory, art may perhaps aid in bolstering and somehow advancing the Memorial’s challenging yet essential mission. Jusidman’s Prussian Blue assumes that task.
For the past four decades, Yishai Jusidman (b. Mexico City, 1963) has engaged traditional pictorial concerns while updating them in his paintings for contemporary relevance. He has an uncanny gift for conjuring naturalistic depictions that probe visual perception and the ethics of representation. Jusidman has held numerous solo exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide and has participated in prestigious biennials and international events. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
The Prussian Blue exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the Auschwitz Foundation and private donors. The exhibition will be open to visitors of the Museum for a year.