Saturday, September 28, 2024 | 12:30–2pm
ADMISSION: Free with Museum admission; advance registration required. Recommended for ages 16+
Paint a lost masterpiece at The CJM with this hands-on painting workshop presented in conjunction with Looted. Exhibition artists Dorota Mytych, Tracy Grubbs, Jessica Houston, and Marcia Teusink will instruct participants on how to repaint some of the looted artworks featured in the exhibition, including paintings by the great-grandfather of local Bay Area resident Elizabeth Rynecki.
Looted reflects on the history of Polish-owned paintings stolen during the Nazi occupation in World War II, and features videos of the four artists painting and then erasing artworks based on documentation from the Polish government catalogue of wartime losses. Become part of reclaiming and enlivening these lost works by creating your own version of a lost art piece, guided by the artists.
All materials will be provided. Painting can be a messy process, so dress appropriately. The workshop is ideal for ages 16+, and some painting experience is recommended. Following the workshop, learn more about the works and the creation of the exhibition during an artist talk.
Click below to book tickets for this event. Advance registration is required. The workshop is recommended for ages 16+. To attend the artist talk, click here.
This multimedia installation features the four artists jointly recreating a total of fifty-nine paintings looted during the Nazi occupation in World War II. 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.
Dorota Mytych is a Polish artist who challenges grand narratives, examining their political, social, and personal foundations. Growing up in communist Poland fuels her interest in the evolution, transformation, and dissolution of these systems. She invites viewers to reconsider established historical narratives through painting, video, sculpture, and installation. Exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Arts Centre, Melbourne; Ethnography Museum, Cracow. Her works are in collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Artbank Collection; and Victoria Legal Aid Collection, Australia.
Tracy Grubbs is a San Francisco-based artist who uses painting, drawing, and movement to explore impermanence and interconnection, often evoking the liminal space between self and other. Exhibitions include The Headlands Center for the Arts, the Morris Graves Museum of Art, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Marin MOCA. In 2022, she was nominated for the SECA Artist Award sponsored by SFMOMA. In 2024, she received an artist’s grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Jessica Houston is a Montréal-based artist who uses painting, photography, and video to focus on climate justice in the polar regions. Collaborating with poets, scientists, and philosophers, she reveals geographies of resistance in the Canadian Arctic and Antarctica. Exhibitions include Vanderbilt University Museum of Art, USA; Museo de Arts de Querétaro, Mexico; CREA Gallery, Venice; and Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. Her works are in the collections of the Musée National Des Beaux-Arts du Quebec, Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, The Consulate General of Monaco, and the Canada Council Art Bank.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum is supported in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts.