Diana Blok in the Art Gallery

The Jewish Museum presents a selection of works from the project Time Tells by Diana Blok.

The Dutch Argentinian photographer Diana Blok (1952) was born in Uruguay and grew up in various countries in Latin America. She has lived in Amsterdam since 1974. In her work, she focuses primarily on the themes of identity, family ties, memory and gender.

In the project Time Tells, Diana Blok explores her complex family history. Her Jewish father, Philip Blok, worked for the Turkish ambassador in The Hague. In 1939, the ambassador took him to Buenos Aires. As a result, he survived the Shoah (Holocaust). Her Argentinian Catholic mother concealed and denied her husband’s Jewish background. After her mother’s death in 2005, Blok embarked on a quest to uncover her hidden origins, which she completed in 2012.

In a documentary, which is shown in the museum, Blok travels to Istanbul to meet the children of the Turkish ambassador. Black-and-white photographs show details of the clothing that her mother – always impeccably dressed – made by hand. A colour photograph – printed in negative – is an enlarged detail of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It symbolises the cryptic way that her father’s past was dealt with during her childhood.

The presentation is on view from 17 April until 18 October 2026 in the Art Gallery at the Jewish Museum.