Jonasz Stern. Landscape After the Holocaust

The exhibition Jonasz Stern. Landscape After the Holocaust held at MOCAK recalls the Cracovian artist whose life and work made a powerful impact on 20th-century art. Stern was a member of the two most important Polish artistic associations of the last century: before the Second World War he belonged to the Kraków Group, and in 1957 he co-founded the II Kraków Group. After the outbreak of the Second World War he escaped to Lwów, where he was rounded up alongside other residents of the city’s ghetto and sent to the Bełżec extermination camp. He managed to escape from the transport, and miraculously evaded bullets during a mass execution. He remained in hiding until the end of the war. His harrowing experiences left an indelible mark on his thinking and art, and he became a philosopher of life, passing and dignity. His compositions express his ideas through simple symbols: crumpled fabrics, skeletons of animals and fish, sand, pebbles, nets, occasionally photos. He created a world of abstract landscapes left behind after an annihilated world. Jonasz Stern’s landscape after the Holocaust is a warning, but its unique funereal beauty also express hope for the revival of values and principles. (Dorota Dziunikowska, “Karnet” monthly)