Marek Oberländer and Jan Lebenstein. The Totemic Sign of the Human Figure
Humanoid creatures, mutants, hybrids, shapes with man-eaters’ heads – these figures fill up works created by Marek Oberländer and Jan Lebenstein.
Humanoid creatures, mutants, hybrids, shapes with man-eaters’ heads – these figures fill up works created by Marek Oberländer and Jan Lebenstein. Painfully affected by World War II, both artists almost simultaneously tried to confront despair, loneliness and degradation of the concept of humanity.
The exhibition will show over 100 works of art from the rich collection of the National Museum in Wroclaw. Most of them are works by Mark Oberländer that have not been shown for over 40 years.
The development of 20th-century totalitarian systems, resulting in mass genocide on an unprecedented scale, forced artists to ask a question about the appropriateness of showing the authentic image of the human being in art. In the face of the unimaginable evil, Oberländer and Lebenstein, both painfully affected by it, almost at the same time, by means of their art, tried to confront despair, loneliness and degradation of the essence of humanity. Like many other representatives of the New Figuration (Moore, Wróblewski, Kantor, Szapocznikow, Abakanowicz), both artists replaced the human form with a particular sign, totem, symbol by presenting the deformed human-inhuman figure and highlighting the physical and moral poverty of its existence.
The exhibition is supplemented by a catalogue devoted to presented works, prepared by Magdalena Szafkowska.
Event details:
mnwr.pl
