Engaging the Forbidden Art, by Jim Routhier

Chris Koenig Seguin, Ed.D.
Art Department Chair, Madonna University
Revised by Deborah Kawsky, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Madonna University

For the Forbidden Art Exhibition, describe in 2-3 sentences the nature of the exhibition. Where did the exhibition originate? What is the theme? Why is it called Forbidden Art? For the Jan Komski exhibition, give some background on how/when/why the artworks were created. What is Jan Komski’s story?

The Forbidden Art exhibit is a collection of artwork created by prisoners of Auschwitz and other concentration camps of the Holocaust. The pieces in the exhibit are made up of sketches, sculptures and other displays of creativity. It was forbidden by the SS for these prisoners to create this artwork, hence the name of the exhibit. The fact that the prisoners found a way to express their creativity, despite the dangers involved, is a testimony to their courage and need for self-expression.

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Take time to view the art exhibited in this room. Select the two artworks that most attract your attention. Attach an image (a small cut and pasted image is fine – added either to this page or to a separate page.) For each artwork, respond to the following questions. These notes can be used for reflecting on the artwork and in discussions.

Title or Description of Artwork #1

Stanislawa Panasowa-Stelmaszewska, The Sorrowful Christ, 8.4 x 2.5 x 4 cm, wood, Ravensbruck 1944

What’s happening in this artwork? How do I know? What do I see?

In this piece, we see the figure of a sorrowful person. The person is holding their head in their hand. I see the person either expressing anguish or astonishment (perhaps at what is happening around them?). The figure is crudely carved, but that only speaks to the difficulty and secrecy needed in creating the piece under less-than-ideal conditions.

What is my response to this artwork?

My immediate response to this piece was to wonder, how is it known that the figure is meant to represent Christ? To me, it could be any person expressing the anguish, sorrow, disillusionment, and other emotions that Holocaust participants must have felt. Is the person depicted screaming in frustration? Agony? Despair?

What more do I see? What more do I want to know?

To me, the figure is representative of all of those who endured the unendurable. In the abstracted features, I see pain, horror and yet, also a sense of disbelief – perhaps at the situation? For me, given that Ravensbruck was a concentration camp exclusively for women, it makes the sculpture that much more meaningful.

Title or Description of Artwork #2

Jozef Szajna, Our Biographies, 34 x 29.8 cm, paper, ink, Buchenwald 1944-45

What’s happening in this artwork? How do I know? What do I see?

The piece is a drawing of images representing individual prisoners. The highly abstract bodies of the prisoners are represented by vertical lines – indicative of the striped uniforms prisoners were required to wear - and the faces are represented by the fingerprint of the actual prisoners represented.

What is my response to this artwork? Why?

This piece stopped me in my tracks. I had an immediate, almost visceral, reaction when I saw this piece. By using fingerprints to represent the faces of individual prisoners, the artist makes drives home the individual uniqueness that was the Holocaust. Each person represented by a fingerprint was a human soul impacted – and in many cases, destroyed – by this tragic period of history. I felt a reaction to this piece as a Gay man, as a Jew, and as a human being.

What more do I see? What more do I want to know?

For me, this is the most powerful piece in the exhibit. By using fingerprints to represent the individual prisoners, I see the piece as being more powerful than it would be had the faces been sketched. No two fingerprints are the same, just as no two people are alike. This piece really brings that point home and personalizes the Holocaust. To me, the fingerprints make the piece practically scream, “We are humans!”