Catalog Essays
- Witness and Legacy
- And The Lion Shall Dwell With The Fish
- The Persistence of Holocaust Imagery in American Art
Foreword
Paul Spencer
Co-curator of Witness and Legacy
Minnesota Museum of American Art
It is almost too horrible to contemplate, but nonetheless true, that the Holocaust will stand as the modern era's signature misachievement, the twentieth century's contribution to humanity. Modern government, modern science, modern industry, modern culture produced not the utopia they promised but, rather, the "final solution." These institutions, in which we must still place our faith, either caused or failed to stop an unprecedented type of mass murder.
This is also the century in which artists understand that culture is entwined in a society's value system. To paraphrase Jerome Witkin's statement in this catalog, we will be made to answer: When the Holocaust was over, what did the culture do to diagnose and treat this selfinflicted wound? If it is true that we are now in a postmodern era and that progress has stopped, it may be because our culture has not fully come to terms with the Holocaust, the rot at the center of our civilization, and will not have the heart to continue until it does.
It is our intention with Witness and Legacy to announce a contemporary movement, the phenomenon of American artists of various experiential perspectives, using various strategies, working today to bring the Holocaust into our cultural dialogue. I am in awe of the courage of these witnesses and their legacy, the sons and daughters and those who are drawn by conscience to such a painful subject. They feel compelled, even duty-bound, to create these artworks, and while the work may give them some solace, it can never finally give them peace. Nonetheless, all of us, the artists and the audience, must do the work of understanding how the Holocaust happened and what it has done to our humanity.
Acknowledgements
Ruth Stevens Appelhof, Ph.D.
Director
Minnesota Museum of American Art
Witness and Legacy is an exhibition that poses a profound and fundamental question: How does one make art about such a moment of history as the Holocaust? Where do the threads of memory, experience, personal creativity and respect for those who perished intersect as a work of art? As co-curator Stephen Feinstein notes in his essay, within the realm of art, the Holocaust era may be just now emerging.
I want to express my gratitute to Professor Feinstein and his colleagues Yehudit Shendar of the University of Minnesota and Matthew Baigell of Rutgers University, who contributed essays to this catalog. Paul Spencer, the museum's associate curator, has worked tirelessly on the exhibition. I also want to recognize the significant contributions of project director and co-curator Lynette Henderson, formerly with the museum's education department, Beth Richardson, the museum's development director, William R. Hegeman, communications director, and Eunice Haugen, registrar.
I also wish to acknowledge the contributions of the Witness and Legacy partnership committee: Samuel H. Asher, Maureen Beck, professors Scott and Lynn Bryce, Sheila Field, Dr. Robert Fisch, Reva Rosenbloom, Ruth Stein, Ruth Ann Weiss, Anita White and Dr. Carol Wirtschafter.
I also want to thank our sponsor committee members who played key roles in making the dream of this exhibition a reality: Reva Rosenbloom, Beverly and Dick Fink, DeeDee and Dick Harris, Judy and Bunny Kuller, Sheila and Stephen E. Lieberman, Rhoda and Don Mains and Mimi and David Sanders. In addition, the board of trustees of the Minnesota Museum of American Art has been unstinting in its support of this exhibition and related programs.
Finally, I want to thank Harry J. Lerner and the staff of Lerner Publications Company for making this catalog possible.