Looted

Uncovering powerful insights into the relationships between art, memory, politics, and loss, this multimedia installation reflects on the history of Polish-owned paintings stolen during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Initiated by Polish artist Dorota Mytych and created with painting collaborators Tracy Grubbs (San Francisco), Jessica Houston (Canada), and Marcia Teusink (UK), the installation features the four artists jointly recreating a total of fifty-nine looted artworks based on documentation from the Polish government catalogue of wartime losses. Watching this mesmerizing process comes with an unexpected conclusion: before each canvas can dry, the artists wipe away their own painstaking work in a stunning erasure that challenges the meaning of authorship, ownership, and recovery. Paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, and others are infinitely recreated and erased, offering new ways to process the impact of these stolen works and experience art as a means for resilience.