Mauricio Lasansky
Artworks
  |
Kaddish #6, 1976 Intaglio print Kaddish #6 evokes the sixth Commandment, "Thou shalt not murder," as well as the "6 million" Jewish victims, and possibly the six big German death camps established on Polish soil. In numerology, the "666" has often been associated with Satan. During the Middle Ages and even in Christian thought, Jews were associated with the Devil. Lasansky is perhaps suggesting that the choice of the victim was not an accident. Right: Detail of Kaddish #6. |
 |
Kaddish #7, 1976 Intaglio print Kaddish #7 shows a Jew wearing tephillen, prayer boxes wrapped around arms and head in Orthodox prayers. At the same time, a death's head comes over him, suggesting that being a Jew was a death warrant. The theatrical faces to the right and left suggest the atmosphere of the Weimar Republic where Nazi extremism, especially about the arts, was nurtured. |
 |
Kaddish #8, 1976 Intaglio print Kaddish #8 suggests a Christ-like image below with a crown of thorns and pierced hand. Lasansky thus asks a critical question: why is the Holocaust a Christian problem? Mainly because Christ as a Jew with four Jewish grandparents would have been at Auschwitz had he been at Auschwitz had he lived in 1943. |
Artist Statement
Lasansky was born in Argentina, lives in Iowa city, a professor emeritus of art. His most famous works are the Nazi Drawings (1965) shown at the Whitney Museum in New York and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and are now housed at the University of Iowa gallery. Kaddish is the Jewish prayer for the dead. It extols the greatness of God and creation, but does not mention death. These works are divided into an earthly zone of pain, and heavenly zone of peace.
Dignity is not a symbol bestowed on man, nor does the word itself possess force. Man's dignity is a force and the only modus vivendi by which man and his history survive. When mid-twentieth-century Germany did not let man live and die with this right, man became an animal. No matter how technologically advanced or sophisticated, when a man negates this divine right he not only becomes self-destructive, he castrates his history and poisons our future.
Teaching Applications
Questions:
- Ask about numbers. How are the numbers arranged?
- With Kaddish #6, how does the number six have multiple meanings? What is the 6th of the 10 commandments?
- Do any of the images evoke Christian questions? If so, what is the relationship between Christianity and the Holocaust?
- Look up the text of the Kaddish.