Jerzy Duda-Gracz (1941–2004), Yom Kippur, 1966

Oil on canvas mounted on a wooden panel, 41 × 21 cm + frame
Signed and dated on the reverse; also on the reverse is the artist’s description with the title (“YOM KIPPUR… 21×41 cm… 1966”) and an inscription in the Hebrew alphabet.
The label from the framing studio (New York, Madison Avenue) is preserved.

The title “Yom Kippur” (Day of Atonement) directs the interpretation toward themes of the sacred, examination of conscience, and collective memory. This is an early work—from the mid-1960s—demonstrating the artist’s interest in the human condition and the “theater” of extreme experiences, before his visual language matured into the later, widely recognizable satire and distortion cloaked in realism. Duda-Gracz remains one of the most important commentators on postwar Polish reality; at the same time, he also explored religious and moral themes in larger series (including works on sacred subjects).