Sluyser and Sluyser
23 April until 14 June 2009
From 23 April to 14 June 2009, in its new temporary display case,
the JHM presents Sluyser and Sluyser, an exhibition of
photos, letters, and manuscripts by the well-known chronicler of
Jewish life Meyer Sluyser (1901-1973) along with several paintings
by his son, the biochemist Mels Sluyser (1930). The exhibition was
prompted by the museum's recent acquisition of archival documents
and photographs relating to Meyer Sluyser, a gift from his son
Mels.
Meyer Sluyser was a socialist, a propagandist for
the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), a notorious contrarian, and, above
all, a writer and journalist, best known as the author of books
such as Er groeit gras in de Weesperstraat ('Grass is
growing in Weesperstraat') en Die en die is er nog…
('This one's still around, and that one . . .'), which
skilfully conjure up scenes of pre-war Jewish life in Amsterdam.
His son, the biochemist Mels Sluyser (1930), followed in his
father's footsteps with artistic reflections on nostalgic elements
of Jewish history, but in his own very different fashion. While
Meyer sketched Jewish life with his pen, Mels portrays it in oils
in paintings such as Sandwich shop (2008), Yiddish humour (2007),
Neshome (2007), and Schnorrer (2008). Like his father's prose,
Mels' paintings evoke the atmosphere of a Jewish world that has
vanished.
The exhibition also reveals another side of Meyer Sluyser, with
photographs and documents from the period between 1940 and 1945,
when Sluyser and his family were in exile in England. The documents
on display include correspondence with relatives who remained in
the Netherlands and Meyer Sluyser's letter of appointment to the
Extraordinary Advisory Board for the Dutch government in exile. And
we catch a glimpse of Sluyser's espionage activities in a coded
letter in which nothing is what it seems . . .
