Faces - Triptych [center] 1961

Editor: This is the central panel of Aubrey Schwartz’s triptych, *Faces*, created in 1961 using charcoal. There’s a disturbing ambiguity to it, like multiple faces trying to emerge from a dark background. What do you see in this piece, especially considering its time? Curator: The use of charcoal, with its inherent transience and ability to create both depth and ambiguity, speaks volumes. It's Expressionist in style and emerged in a period rife with anxieties about identity and the human condition after the Holocaust. Look at the fragmented form—could this relate to the fragmentation of identity and the self under societal pressure, specifically Jewish identity following immense trauma? Editor: So, the blurred effect, the multiple noses and eyes…it’s not just about technical skill but a deliberate artistic choice reflecting societal anxieties? Curator: Precisely. The overlapping features seem to suggest not just one face, but a layering of experiences and possibly inherited trauma. Schwartz is prompting us to confront the complexities and the historical weight carried by marginalized communities, in this case especially Jewish people. How do you think figuration in this context differs from abstract responses to trauma? Editor: While abstraction might offer an escape or a universalization of pain, figuration forces you to confront the individual, specific experience of it. This image makes you engage with someone's face, however distorted. Curator: Exactly! It resists the erasure of identity. And within a triptych format, typically reserved for religious iconography, the artist elevates the human face and asks us to consider individual and collective trauma, especially questions around visibility and representation, from a social justice point of view. Editor: That adds a completely new layer of understanding to it for me. I came in seeing a disturbing image, and now I see a powerful statement of resilience and remembrance.