HOL 6500 The Idea of "Holocaust Art"

There is a slew of key questions that one must ask when one approaches the subject of Holocaust art. What is art in the first place? What and precisely when was the Holocaust? (World War II extended from 1939 to 1945 and pitted the Allies against their Axis enemies; the Holocaust was parallel to but not the same as World War II, in terms of both its content and its timing: When did it begin, and of subtler, less obvious import, when did it end?) Does one evaluate Holocaust art by the same criteria used to evaluate art in general? To what extent does one consider aesthetics and visual quality and to what extent does one consider it in terms of its role as witnessing and recording and remembering events? This last question engenders another: what is the time period and who are the makers of Holocaust art? During or after the events of the Holocaust or after them? Is the art in question made by Holocaust victims or does the category include non-victims at the time of or after (and how long after) its momentous events? Can one discern particular categories of Holocaust art, makers and what differently motivates them? For that matter, given the association of the Holocaust with Jews as victims, what of other victims, is Holocaust art art only made by Jews? Is it a subset of Jewish art but then: what is Jewish art? This last question returns full circle for part of its answer to the initial question of what art is.

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