Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates)

Jan van Leeuwen
Holland, born 1932
Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates)
Cyanotype, 1992
Collection Museum of Photographic Arts
Gift of the artist
1993.010.002
© Museum of Photographic Arts

When In Time

1932
Jan van Leeuwen born in the Netherlands

1939

World War II begins

1945
World War II ends

1959
Russia launches the first space satellite, Sputnik I

1975
First skateboard

1983

CDs begin to replace records and cassette tapes

1992
van Leeuwen creates Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates)

Who What Where When Why

Who is the artist?
Jan van Leeuwen

What is the name of the artwork?
Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates)

What materials were used?
Cyanotype

Where is the artist from?
The Netherlands

When was the artwork made?
1992

Who?

Jan van Leeuwen was born in 1932 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A salesman, office manager, and buyer for trading companies, his early photos were pictures of the products he represented. When he started to become serious about studying photography, he went to a workshop that focused on self-portraits. Van Leeuwen was very excited about what he had learned and from then on picked self- portraits as his main subject. He also learned about the cyanotype process from a famous Dutch photo-collector.

Why?

Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates) is the second photo out of Jan van Leeuwen’s ten-piece barb-wire series. In this series, van Leeuwen shows his sorrow for the horrible events that happened during World War II. These photos show self-portraits that make people feel loneliness and sadness. This is because there is very little color in the work, except the colors blue and white. His choice of color relates to the sad emotions.

Do you see people in this photo?

What makes you think this? What type of shapes do you see in this photo?

How does this photo make you feel?

What does this photo remind you of? Why?

Glossary Terms

Cyanotype - Also known as Sunprints or photograms. Cyanotypes are made without a camera. Objects are placed on top of a piece of light-sensitive paper and exposed to light. The areas covered by the objects are unexposed and remain light in color, while the areas around the objects are exposed to light and darken in color. Cyanotype refers to images that are produced on specially treated paper that turns a blue (cyan) color.
Self-portrait - a portrait of oneself, made by oneself.