Artist expresses Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as he saw it

Visitors to the Holocaust Memorial Museum Zekelman Family Campus in West Bloomfield this spring will behold the work of Polish-born Wladyslaw Brzosko, whose moving paintings commemorate his experience during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Post-impressionistic style, cubist influences, geometric shapes -- and, of course, the images of the war can all be seen in the work of Brzosko, who trained at the Academy of Art in Warsaw during the 1930s. While in Poland, state control prevented him from painting what he saw during the uprising. Brzosko fled Warsaw for Paris, and eventually New York, in 1960.

Excerpt:

Her husband worked as a janitor at the New York Public Library with a split shift -- often 6-9 a.m. and evenings -- that gave him time during the day to paint. He drew inspiration from faces he would see during subway rides, she remembered, for figures in the paintings, and he also borrowed the World War II picture archives at the library.

The works are scheduled to be on display until July. Read more here, or visit the Holocaust Center website.