Murray Zimilesn
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- n 1987n
- n Offset Lithographn
- n Image/sheet: 22 x 30″n
- n 40;12 prints in this editionn
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About the Print
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From the Artist
As an artist engaged with painfully difficult topics, my journey began in childhood with the daily reality of The Holocaust in my immigrant community. Art gave me a positive way to give form and expression to the rage, grief and horror within and around me. This portfolio of ten prints, created at Brandywine, constitute but a small part of my thirteen years of work on The Holocaust.
Working at Brandywine, especially with Allan Edmunds, was a very special and enriching time for me and I eventually opened out to explore catastrophes like 9/11, the continuing legacy of racism, the destruction of the environment and of irreplaceable buildings like Notre Dame de Paris and the suffering of animals.
At Brandywine I experienced absolute freedom to experiment with both rapid fire gestural drawings, and with a new material that enabled it. Mylar, used instead of traditional litho stones or plates, permitted the subtle gray scale washes and pitch black blacks perfectly suited to the intensity I sought in my images. I decided to combine archival photographs with elements from my own imagination to enhance possible interpretations.
I hope these images will provoke viewers to learn about The Holocaust and to recognize the similarities to neo-Nazi groups: antisemitic, racist, in love with guns, violence and a totalitarian ideal. If they succeed the result will look like these images.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records
In 1987, Murray Zimiles developed an extraordinary project at Brandywine. Zimiles, a well-known printmaker and author, was interested in pushing the boundaries of offset lithography and comparing it to traditional stone lithography. Founder Allan Edmunds recalled Zimiles pouring his soul out during his residency; he worked quickly, constantly drew, and worked late into the night. His images were created on mylar and then transferred to positive sensitive plates, which preserved the fine grays and delicate washes. It was difficult to keep his delicate gray washes and rich blacks from fading, but the printer achieved a pleasing balance of black, white, and gray tones. Holocaust, a portfolio series of ten offset lithographs and a colophon printed in an edition of 40 plus 12 sets of individual prints, was completed in five days. Zimiles paints a bleak but realistic picture of the Holocaust or Shoah, the systematic genocidal murder of six million European Jews—two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population—by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945.
—Adapted from Brandywine Workshop and Archives records and “Fresh, Human and Personal: Signature of Brandywine Workshop,” Three Decades of American Printmaking: The Brandywine Workshop Collection (Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2004)
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Murray Zimilesn
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American nBorn November 30, 1941
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About the Artist
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New York-based artist Murray Similes earned a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the University of Illinois and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Cornell University in New York.
Zimiles has had over one hundred exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including Schukin Gallery in Paris, France; Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersberg, Florida; Houston Holocaust Museum in Texas, BMG Gallery in Adelaide, Australia; Sydney Jewish Museum in Australia, Suffolk Community College in Selden, New York; National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland; Hartford School of Art in Connecticut; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art’s International Biennial Print Exhibition, Princeton University in New Jersey, Society of American Graphic Artists in New York City, the University of Arizona in Tempe, Virginia Museum of Art in Richmond, and Wisconsin State University.
His work is in collections including the 911 Memorial and Museum in New York City, Brooklyn Museum in New York, College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia; Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Elmhurst College in Illinois, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art in Haifa, Israel; National Collection in Washington, DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Royal Norwegian Government Collection in Oslo, Norway; Tel Aviv Museum in Israel; and U.S.I.A. Collections.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records