On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, on May 8, 2025, the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen, in cooperation with the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, the Polish Institute Düsseldorf, and the Gerd-Keimer Bürgerstiftung Solingen, will open the first monographic exhibition of Marian Ruzamski outside of Poland.

MARIAN RUZAMSKI – KUNST DER ERINNERUNG

First monographic exhibition of Marian Ruzamski outside Poland

May 8 – September 14, 2025

Center for Persecuted Arts, Wuppertaler Str. 160, 42653 Solingen

https://www.verfolgte-kuenste.com/wechselausstellungen/marian-ruzamki-kunst-der-erinnerung

100 years after his last solo exhibition. 80 years after his death – the work of Marian Ruzamski returns to the public eye.

Art as Testimony

Artworks can express the unspeakable. They transmit history not only in facts but in feelings – connecting us with the experiences of those who created them. The exhibition "Marian Ruzamski. The Art of Remembrance" focuses on an artist whose extraordinary use of color and depth impress, but also on his fate. Ruzamski was deported to Auschwitz during World War II and died in 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen camp. His works created in Auschwitz are a silent resistance against forgetting – an expression of hope in times of greatest darkness.

The Artist Marian Ruzamski (1889-1945)

“Despite enthusiastic reviews and exhibitions in the most prestigious salons of the Second Republic, he never managed to establish himself among the leading Polish painters of the 20th century. Even after World War II, it was impossible to bring him back into collective memory.” – Tadeusz Zych, 2025

Marian Ruzamski was a sensitive observer of his surroundings. His paintings depict portraits, landscapes, everyday scenes – always infused with deep humanity. He is among the artists whose work was nearly erased due to persecution. With this exhibition, his complete works will be shown comprehensively for the first time – a tribute to a great Polish painter and witness of the Shoah.

The dramatic upheavals of the past century shaped Marian Ruzamski's life: Born in 1889 in Lipnik near Bielsko-Biała, he came from a culturally diverse family. His mother was a French Jew, and his father a Polish notary. The young, highly gifted artist had to abandon his scholarship in Paris in 1914 and leave France, as he became an “enemy alien” with the onset of war. During World War I, he was taken by Russian troops to Kharkiv. From the turmoil of the revolution, he returned heavily traumatized to the now free young Polish state. During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, Ruzamski was denounced as a Jew and homosexual in 1943, deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis, and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where he died on March 8, 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

Yet although Ruzamski's life was overshadowed by war, persecution, and violence, his works tell a different story. His paintings are characterized by deep humanity, scenes of everyday life, and an almost ethereal lightness – as if another, peaceful century were passing before us. They are poetic, haunting images that recall summery landscapes, not terror and destruction.

The Impetus Marian Turski (1926–2025)

The idea for the exhibition comes from Marian Turski – historian, journalist, and Auschwitz survivor. Throughout his life, he fought against forgetting, for democracy and human rights.

His words "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It began with small manifestations of intolerance and anti-Semitism, with racism. This is what we must remember: It did not begin with gas chambers." continue to remind us today. Turski was involved in the creation of this exhibition until shortly before his death. His foreword to the catalog was completed a few days before his death on February 18, 2025. The exhibition is dedicated to him.

The Art of Remembrance

In 2025, the end of World War II will be commemorated for the 80th time – an occasion to pause and re-examine how we today remember the catastrophic events of the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition featuring the works of Marian Ruzamski is an artistic contribution to this commemoration. It focuses on an individual fate that stands as an exemplar for many and shows that remembrance is not only a warning but also a cultural heritage. In a time when historical narratives are increasingly questioned, the exhibition sends a message about the importance of art as a medium of historical consciousness. It reminds us that the path to reconciliation leads through understanding – and that this understanding often begins in the silence of an image.

The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Tarnów Castle Museum in Tarnobrzeg and the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is supported by the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, the Polish Institute Düsseldorf, and the Gerd-Kaimer Bürgerstiftung Solingen, among other sponsors. After the debut presentation at the Center for Persecuted Arts, the exhibition will be shown in Tarnobrzeg, Ruzamski's last home, and in Spring 2026 at the Palace of Fine Arts in Kraków, where Ruzamski had his last solo exhibition 100 years ago.

In preparation for this exhibition, a German-Polish conference titled "Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future" focusing on the life and work of Marian Ruzamski and the fight against anti-Semitism took place at the Center for Persecuted Arts on September 4-5, 2024.

10:00 AM - 5:00 PM