Tintenpulver
Object numberM2018/023:003
TitleTintenpulver
DescriptionInk and wash/watercolour artwork, created by Joseph (Jo) Adolf Spier in Terezin. Signed J. Spier. The subject, reaches into a box - seemingly at work. The title Tintenpulver (Ink Powder), may be suggestive of the nature of her task. Her dress, expression and posture allude to her situation in the camp. The item was donated by Sally Glass; her husband was given the work by Spier in Theresienstadt.
Jo Spier was one of many artists working from within the walls of the Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Put to work in the Werkstatte fur Kunstgewerbe und Gebrauchsmalerei (Workshop for Arts and Crafts and Utility Painting), he was forced to produce propaganda drawings of Theresienstadt and created the artwork for the commemorative album ‘Bilder aus Theresienstadt (Images from Theresienstadt)’, presented as souvenir to Nazi leaders. When the Red Cross made their official visit to the camp in 1944, Spier was touted as a representative of Dutch Jewry. His artistic talents were also used in the 1944 propaganda film ‘The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City.’ Throughout this period he and his contemporaries were utilising the art supplies at their disposal to create realistic and clandestine depictions of life inside Terezin. Work produced by Spier, as well as Leo Haas, Helga Weissova Hoskova, Fritz Taussig, known as Fritta, Karel Fleischmann and Frantisek Petr Kien, depict the true and concealed horrors of life within the camp.
Spier was born 26 June 1900, in Zutphen, The Netherlands, to a Jewish couple; the oldest of three boys. In 1924, he began working for the newspaper De Telegraaf as an artist and illustrator and married Albertine Sophie Vane Raalte in 1925; they had three children. In 1940, he was fired for being Jewish and in 1943, was arrested and sent to Westerbork for producing a satirical cartoon of Hitler. In the same year, he and his family were sent to Terezin. Post war, they migrated to the U.S and settled in New York. Joseph Spier died in May 1978.
Jo Spier was one of many artists working from within the walls of the Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Put to work in the Werkstatte fur Kunstgewerbe und Gebrauchsmalerei (Workshop for Arts and Crafts and Utility Painting), he was forced to produce propaganda drawings of Theresienstadt and created the artwork for the commemorative album ‘Bilder aus Theresienstadt (Images from Theresienstadt)’, presented as souvenir to Nazi leaders. When the Red Cross made their official visit to the camp in 1944, Spier was touted as a representative of Dutch Jewry. His artistic talents were also used in the 1944 propaganda film ‘The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City.’ Throughout this period he and his contemporaries were utilising the art supplies at their disposal to create realistic and clandestine depictions of life inside Terezin. Work produced by Spier, as well as Leo Haas, Helga Weissova Hoskova, Fritz Taussig, known as Fritta, Karel Fleischmann and Frantisek Petr Kien, depict the true and concealed horrors of life within the camp.
Spier was born 26 June 1900, in Zutphen, The Netherlands, to a Jewish couple; the oldest of three boys. In 1924, he began working for the newspaper De Telegraaf as an artist and illustrator and married Albertine Sophie Vane Raalte in 1925; they had three children. In 1940, he was fired for being Jewish and in 1943, was arrested and sent to Westerbork for producing a satirical cartoon of Hitler. In the same year, he and his family were sent to Terezin. Post war, they migrated to the U.S and settled in New York. Joseph Spier died in May 1978.
Production placeTheresienstadt ghetto
Production date 1943 - 1943
Subjectart, Terezin, Czech Republic, propaganda, amidah, holocaust art
Object namepaintings
Dimensions
- width: 190.00 mm
height: 278.00 mm
Language
- German Ink Powder
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Sally Glass