Robert Sutz

Originally from Chicago, Robert Sutz was an executive art director for Leo Burnett, a well-known, worldwide advertising company and also had a parallel career in fine art.  His fine art includes paintings of urban scenes of Chicago, western art, paintings of Israel, as well as a large variety of commissioned portraits.  His art has been widely exhibited in art galleries across the United States, and many of his major portraits are on permanent display.

Sutz, whose father’s Polish family perished in Nazi concentration camps, first began producing Holocaust-related art during the 1990’s, after he served as an interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah project.  He initiated his own We Remember Holocaust Memorial Art Project as a way to pay tribute to local survivors, liberators and righteous gentiles and to ensure that their stories and lessons of hope and resilience are never forgotten. Ultimately, the Sutz gallery will provide a unique and powerful experience for learning, encouraging respect and mutual understanding among people of all backgrounds

After relocating to Scottsdale, Arizona in 1997, Sutz established a studio to pursue his Holocaust project.  His artwork now includes approximately 140 life masks and portraits of Holocaust survivors, liberators, and righteous gentiles.  Subjects are interviewed on video and a short bio, concisely describing the subject’s Holocaust story and life after the Holocaust,  is created to be displayed with their life mask or portrait.  In addition, Sutz has painted over 90 graphic scenes of the Holocaust witnessed by the survivors.  

Sutz’s Holocaust artwork is unique because of its artistic and educational approach and breadth, particularly by a single artist.  In 2014, he was awarded the Shofar Zachor award from the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors Association and the Beryl Morton award from the Arizona Jewish Historical Society.

We hope you will consider supporting our vision through this campaign, recognizing the importance of this Center and the impact it will have on our community. With your support, this campaign will allow the Arizona Jewish Historical Society to make a critical investment to expand our footprint so that we can educate and encourage a more inclusive community.

ADDRESS:

122 E. Culver Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85004-1720

We are located right next to Burton Barr Phoenix Public Library. To find us, take 2nd Street south from McDowell.