Holocaust Museum LA to Present DIE PLAGE Collage by Harley Gaber

Holocaust Museum LA will present "Die Plage," a large-scale collage by visual artist and minimalist composer Harley Gaber, opening Feb. 6, 2025. The installation, which focuses on his World War II canvases, will be on display at Holocaust Museum LA for the first time.

Harley Gaber (1943-2011) worked on "Die Plage" from 1993-2002, shaped by his multiple trips to Germany in which he combed archives, explored historical sites and visited former concentration camps to inform his process and body of work. He used collaging techniques and mixed media to create arresting images that juxtapose perpetrators and victims in a work spanning 4,200 canvases. Six hundred of the canvases will be on display at Holocaust Museum LA, covering six walls in striking grid-like formations, as per the artist's original design and intention. The exhibition will also feature a number of Gaber's personal objects, family photographs and examples of his musical scores.

Described as "a major work of art, of great splendor and profundity; a powerful immersive experience to behold ... a vast, absorbing installation," "Die Plage" "captures the tumult and terror of those years through a thoughtful, aggressive barrage of images."

Born in Chicago to a Jewish family, Gaber relocated to New York and became one of America's early minimalist composers. His groundbreaking album, "The Winds Rise in the North," has been hailed by musician Keith Fullerton Whitman as, "one of the holy grails of minimalism in music in the 20th century." In 1978, Gaber moved to California. He stopped composing and focused on creating photo collages. He returned to composition in 2008 and produced two musical works before his death in 2011.

After his death, the Gaber estate gifted "Die Plage" to the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation in Chicago, which manages the artist's body of work and is the generous primary sponsor of the exhibit at Holocaust Museum LA. HMLA's "Die Plage" exhibit will be on display until June 30, 2025.

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