Objects

Jonasz Stern, 1985

Gierałtowski, Krzysztof (1938- )

"I was born on Yom Kippur - Doomsday," the painter told about himself – "I do not know why God, whom I do not believe in, gave me a second life" (K. Bik, Alfabet powtórnie narodzonego (Alphabet of the Reborn), Gazeta Wyborcza 1997, No. 78, p. 11).

The first life of Jonasz Stern (1904–1988) was a childhood spent in Kałusz, a Galician town located at the foot of the Carpathians, inhabited by Ukrainians, Jews and Poles,studies in Kraków at the Academy of Fine Arts, and exhibitions with colleagues from the Kraków Group. It is the time of a youthful reading of Karl Marx's Capital, which forever defined the artist's political and ideological views. Stern, a pre-war prisoner of Bereza Kartuska, was a rebellious, uncompromising communist, and an independent creator. He never submitted to the doctrine of socialist realism in the 1950s. He was always faithful to himself and his artistic search.

The artist's second life is a life ``given`` – he escaped from the transport to the death camp in Bełżec and was saved by accident from a mass execution on 1 June 1943, in which the surviving Lviv Jews were murdered. It is hiding and walking from Lviv to Hungary, where the painter lived to see the liberation; and finally return to Kraków, where he lived until his death. And it was in the vicinity of Kraków, against the background of a limestone hill, which the artist called ``His Temple``, that he took the photo three years before his death, in 1985.

Renata Piątkowska

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Information about the object
Author / creator
Gierałtowski, Krzysztof (1938- )
Object type
photography
Time of creation / dating
21st century
Place of creation
Kraków (Małopolskie Province)
Technique
black-and-white photograph
Material
photographic print paper
Keywords
Copyright status
contact the Museum
Owner
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Identification number
MPOLIN-M733
Localization
The object is not currently on display