Preview: Thursday 5 September 2024 (6-8 pm)
Exhibition Dates: Friday 6 September – Thursday 17 October 2024
Address: ALICE BLACK, 7 Windmill St, London W1T 2JD
This is the first significant solo exhibition of the late Jewish ěmigreě painter and potter.
This exhibition will explore Elsner’s unique relationship to paint, ink, ceramics, and existentialism which shore the legacy of this post-war Holocaust survivalist’s practice. Throughout his life, Elsner never lost the mistrust of authorities and institutions that he’d inherited from the war, and so he rarely showed his work. For decades, it has remained packed in boxes and stored away. ‘Just to survive today’ brings together the most comprehensive overview of Elsner’s 50-year output. Destroying over 80% of all he made in his lifetime, what remains represents a singular vision of how to live.
Elsner’s work belongs in the permanent collection of the Ashmolean Museum, UK.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the launch of a new biography (Dante Elsner) and an associated book of poetry (Colours of Mourning), written by the artist’s granddaughter, Maia Elsner and published by Guillemot Press.
More biographical detail of Dante Elsner’s life and work can be found here in this link.
Dante Elsner — ALICE BLACK (aliceblackgallery.com)
