The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
has announced the summer opening of Charlotte Salomon: “Life? or
Theater?” This exhibition, featuring nearly 300 of
Charlotte Salomon’s paintings from the collection of the Jewish Historical
Museum in Amsterdam, offers a rare opportunity to witness Salomon’s only major
work, a masterpiece that survived the Holocaust and stands as a testament to her
life and artistic vision.
In the early years of World War
II, Charlotte Salomon, a 23-year-old Jewish artist from Berlin, fled to the
south of France where she shut herself into a hotel room and spent two years
feverishly painting the history of her life. She called it Life? or Theater?:
A Play With Music, an astounding body of over 1,300 powerfully drawn and
expressively colored gouache paintings conceived as a sort of autobiographical
operetta on paper. One page after another, Salomon used an inventive mixture of
images, dialogue, commentary and musical cues to tell a compelling coming-of-age
story set amidst family suicides and increasing Nazi oppression.
“Life? or Theater? is an extraordinary work of art that deserves
and needs to be seen,” said Susan Abrams, CEO of the Illinois Holocaust Museum.
“Anyone with an interest in the creative spirit will be awed by the magnum opus
of this young woman who felt she had no place in society. Her lifetime of work,
created with no promise or hope of recognition, speaks deeply to how essential
the act of art making can be in times of turmoil. We feel privileged to be able
to bring this to a wider audience.”
After her work was
completed, Salomon entrusted Life? or Theater? to a local doctor with
the plea, “Keep this safe. It is my whole life.” Just one year after she
completed Life? or Theater?, the pregnant 26-year-old was transported to
Auschwitz and killed, but her singular creation survived. The exhibition
highlights the main acts of Salomon’s sweeping narrative, allowing visitors to
appreciate not just the individual strength of each piece but also its serial
nature.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education
Center’s will host two featured programs in conjunction with this exhibition. On
Sunday, July 27, a family program, co-presented by the Anti-Defamation League,
will allow children ages 4-14 to explore internal characteristics through
art-based activities. On Thursday, Aug. 7, the Museum will hold an artist panel
featuring three Holocaust survivors and Chicago artists who will discuss how
history and memory affect their art making.
To register for
these events or to learn more, visit www.ilholocaustmuseum.org or call
847-967-4800.