OJMCHE exhibits Harley Gaber’s large-scale photomontage focused on Germany from Weimar through the Second World War
October 7, 2022 – January 29, 2023
High Res images are available here
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. Whether working in the mediums of collage, film, photography, or musical composition – his outsider perspective, disciplined process, and deep curiosity about human nature informed his wide range of creative expression.
Starting in 1993 through 2002, Gaber worked on DIE PLAGE. Throughout that period, he traveled in Europe and Germany, visited the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, and photocopied hundreds of images in German archives – depicting the Weimar Republic through the Holocaust. Gaber spent these nine prolific years collaging images into unexpected arrangements and juxtapositions; the resulting 4,200 canvases became – DIE PLAGE.
“This installation is the first public showing of DIE PLAGE since the year 2000,” said Melissa Martens Yaverbaum, guest curator. “It provides a fascinating glimpse into the artist, the piece, and the questions that underlie it – from nationhood, to loyalty, propaganda, perpetrators, displacement, and the role of individuals in the course of history and the plagues of our times.”
From his minimalist music – to his experimental films and mixed-media collages – Gaber was expert at deconstructing and reconstructing to make new meanings. This kaleidoscopic installation purposefully scrambles, deconstructs, and reconstructs images from German history and art to challenge common interpretations.
“DIE PLAGE is a major work of art, of great splendor and profundity; one of the most searing and poignant treatments, in any genre, of the Nazis extermination of the Jews…. Gaber’s medium may be photo-montage, but his sensibilities are those of a painter, and an exceptionally gifted one.”
John Saville
San Diego Reader
As in his art, Gaber’s life was shaped by opposing forces – love and loss, accolades and discouragement, visibility and invisibility, connections and separations, accomplishments and disappointments. Harley Gaber ended his life in 2011. This installation of DIE PLAGE at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is the first public showing of the work since then and provides a glimpse into both the artist and the questions that underlie the work– from nationhood, to loyalty, propaganda, perpetrators, displacement, and the role of individuals in the course of history and the plagues of our times. Gaber once wrote that DIE PLAGE is “a warning that if and when a culture allows itself to be built on a foundation of silencing individuals and their personally unique thoughts in favor of an expedient collective goal, everyone will be made to suffer.”
“DIE PLAGE is as much about the present as it is about the past. Harley Gaber was prescient; he believed that what drove the unspeakable evil of the Holocaust and racism were forces deeply embedded in human nature. He artistically exposed these forces through his art. Die Plage is a profound and compelling work, and it has been a privilege to bring it back into public view through this exciting OMJCHE exhibition and hopefully more to come.”
Dan Epstein
Epstein Family Foundation
While DIE PLAGE offers a different perspective on the events surrounding the Holocaust, Gaber did not create it to be solely about the Holocaust. Gaber wrote, “my goal is to show that while the historic trappings of our existence are transitory, the impulses that give rise to them remain constant. The collaged images themselves, with their altered plausibilities, represent the notion that the boundaries we like to believe are immutable, are nothing of the sort. It is my hope that the viewers of my work will see the dual nature of what is being depicted. On the one hand, DIE PLAGE is an homage to that period, summoning up the loss of ideas, energy, and ultimately human life. DIE PLAGE is also a warning that if and when a culture allows itself to be built on a foundation of silencing individuals and their personally unique thoughts in favor of an expedient collective goal, everyone will be made to suffer. The poet, Heine, stated it very clearly: ‘Where they burn books, they will soon burn people.’ ”
“For a decade I have reflected on the artistic brilliance and profound emotional power of Harley Gaber’s epic creation, DIE PLAGE, his “Lebenswerk” (Life’s Work). DIE PLAGE presents its audience with a powerful immersive experience to behold. Closely aligned with the historic creations of courageous artists like John Heartfeld and George Grosz… DIE PLAGE invokes images, events and memories as a powerful call ‘not to forget’… and does so as our own country is currently embroiled with a dangerous dalliance with Fascism. Thankfully, the time has come for it to receive a broad public audience and secure its place in the canon of 20th century art.”
Jock Reynolds
Henry Heinz II Director, Emeritus
Yale University Art Gallery
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education extends its gratitude to Dan Epstein and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation for generously funding this exhibition. Additional support was provided by the Museum’s Arnold and Augusta Newman Photography Fund.
About Melissa Martens Yaverbaum
Guest Curator Melissa Martens Yaverbaum is the Executive Director of the Council of American Jewish Museums and has worked with museums for 25 years. Previously she served as Director of Collections and Exhibitions of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust; Curator of the Jewish Museum of Maryland; and Curator of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. Yaverbaum has curated many exhibitions about Jewish culture and history, and has authored related publications. She has worked at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Newberry Library, and the Field Museum.
About Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE) explores the legacy of the Jewish experience in Oregon, teaches the universal lessons of the Holocaust, and provides opportunities for intercultural conversation. Through exhibitions and public programming OJMCHE focuses on Jewish art, history, and culture, while simultaneously recognizing the challenge of remaining relevant in a changing and tumultuous world. OJMCHE challenges our visitors to resist indifference and discrimination and to envision a just and inclusive world.