Highgate artist Gerry Judah is to display his new work at the Imperial War Museum.

THE Imperial War Museum is exhibiting a specially commissioned work by Highgate artist Gerry Judah to mark Remembrance Day.

The Crusader will hang in the main exhibition space at the museum’s northern outpost in Manchester for a year until November 2011.

A seven-metre 3D crucifix covered with a lattice of white-laquered war-torn buildings, the powerful, thought-provoking piece was created by the 59-year-old in direct response to contemporary global conflict – especially in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

It reflects both on the decimation of cities by modern day and historic conflicts and on the wider themes of the museum itself.

It will – appropriately – hang in a landmark building designed by Daniel Libeskind to represent a globe shattered by conflict.

Judah, who was born and brought up in India before moving to London at the age of 10, has previously created an acclaimed model of the selection ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau for the Imperial War Museum’s Holocaust exhibition in 2000.

Jim Forrester, Imperial War Museum North director, said: “The Crusader is a very dramatic sculpture that will provide an emphatic welcome to everyone this Remembrance. It offers an unusual perspective on conflict at a very poignant time of year, showing how war shapes lives.”