On Tuesday, Oct 25, at 11.30 a.m. Joseph Gallivan talks to curator Melissa Martens Yaverbaum about Harley Gaber’s collage, “Die Plage,” on now at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, through Jan. 29, 2023. Yaverbaum talks about Gaber’s different collage techniques, his life as a minimalist musician, and whether this kind of holocaust art is about good guys and bad guys or something more complex. Melissa Martens Yaverbaum is the executive director of the Council of American Jewish Museums http://www.cajm.net/leadership. Harley Gaber died by suicide in 2011.
From the press release:
https://www.ojmche.org/events/harleys-gabers-die-plage/
October 7, 2022 – January 29, 2023
Harley Gaber (1943-2011) was an American-Jewish minimalist composer and visual artist, known for his arresting works that rearranged the language of art and music. Between 1993 and 2002, Gaber worked on DIE PLAGE. He traveled in Europe, visiting the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, and photocopying hundreds of images in German archives that depicted the Weimar Republic through the Holocaust. Gaber spent these nine prolific years collaging images into unexpected arrangements and juxtapositions; the resulting canvases became DIE PLAGE. The exhibition features 390 collaged images, music, and objects from Harley’s life. It considers the role of individuals in the course of history and consequently challenges viewers to examine their responsibility to their nation and to one another in the plagues of our times. The exhibition is curated by Melissa Martens Yaverbaum.
OJMCHE extends its gratitude to Dan Epstein and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation for generously funding the exhibition. Additional support is from the Arnold and Augusta Newman Photography Fund of OJMCHE.
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently a Feature Writer. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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