Sigmund Laufer at Kelly Writers House

Holocaust Prints by Sigmund Laufer

a Brodsky Gallery Opening

Opening Thursday, Nov. 3 at 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

The final Brodsky Gallery exhibition of the semester will feature nine prints from artist Sigmund Laufer's series "The Holocaust." Susan Bee and Charles Bernstein will introduce us to the artist and his work, and following will be a conversation about art and representation of the Holocaust, moderated by Writers House faculty director Al Filreis. Afterwards there will be a reception with ample time to continue the conversation and engage with Laufer's expressive prints.

Sigmund Laufer (1920-2007) grew up in Berlin until age sixteen, when he emigrated to a northern Palestinian Kibbutz as part of the Youth Aliyah of European Jews threatened by the rise of Nazism in Germany. He then moved to Jerusalem where he met his future wife, Miriam Laufer, also an artist and a refugee from Berlin. After the war in June 1947, they emigrated together to New York City, where they had two children, Abigail Laufer and Susan Bee (Laufer). Sigmund began working for the Board of Jewish Education as a book designer, calligrapher, and art director of the children's publication, World Over. He was employed by the BJE for 44 years from 1948 to 1992. Upon moving to New York, Laufer simultaneously began his career as a printmaker and artist, and created black and white and color etchings and lithographs. His first exhibition was just two years after arriving in New York, as part of a group show at the Jewish Museum in New York City in 1949. He had solo shows in New York and was included in many group shows. His work was widely reviewed. Laufer’s prints are part of many collections, private and public, in the United States and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the National Library in Paris, and the National Museum in Jerusalem. This series of nine Holocaust etchings, which were created in the 1960s, have not been exhibited together since then. Visit his website here.