Published:

Holocaust and Rebirth: Metamorphoses of Colors in the Work of Jewish Artis-Holocaust Survivor Aleksander Bogen (1916-2010)

Magdalena Tarnowska
Saeculum Christianum. Historical Writings
Section: Rozprawy i Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/sc.2021.28.spec.12

Abstract

According to my research, between 1946 and 1950 in Poland, there were about 40 active visual artists who were Holocaust survivors. One of them was Alexander Bogen (1916-2010) from Vilnius. A partisan, he participated in the action of rescuing people from the ghetto. He spent the years 1947-1951 in Łódź. He emigrated to Israel, where he is considered one of the most prominent colorists. Although Bogen didn not intend to take up the Holocaust as his subject, one could find its symbolical representations in his oeuvre. The most significant include a group of partisans, a girl with a doll, and a family deported from the ghetto. An analysis of his painting in the context of the Holocaust experience depicted in the said motifs enables us to describe the process of the sublimation of Bogen’s Holocaust trauma through metamorphoses of form, meaning, and color.

Keywords:

Holocaust art, Alexander Bogen, colorism, metamorphosis, revival, Holocaust iconography, painting

Download files

Citation rules

Tarnowska, M. (2021). Holocaust and Rebirth: Metamorphoses of Colors in the Work of Jewish Artis-Holocaust Survivor Aleksander Bogen (1916-2010). Saeculum Christianum. Historical Writings, (28), 158–175. https://doi.org/10.21697/sc.2021.28.spec.12

Cited by / Share


This website uses cookies for proper operation, in order to use the portal fully you must accept cookies.