Jewish brides

The graphic design of the Żydowskie narzeczone [Jewish Brides] differs from that of many engravings from the series Memory Rhythms. The nudes of naked women, standing en face towards the viewer, are rendered with a soft, thick line, which is complemented by a much more diffuse and painterly stain than in other compositions. The author himself wrote about the painting version of the polyptych of the same title, in a way giving the key to the reading of the graphic version: Some see in my quadriptych 'Jewish Brides' some influence of Picasso's 'Demoiselles d'Avignon'; others, if only in the title, see an allusion to Rembrandt's 'Jewish Bride'. For me, however, they are women herded into the gas chambers of Birkenau. From behind the wires, through the half-open doors of the quarantine barracks, I saw them in January 1944, waiting to be loaded onto trucks. The extermination worked at such a pace that the doors were left open. I heard their pleas. I saw their terror.

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