La Fin de l’art dans les « paysages de la mort ». Les artistes des camps de concentration

Abstract

In the concentration camp, many artists drew at the risk of their lives. These productions can tell us a lot about the condition of life in the camps, but they also raise several questions that are related to the philosophy of art. Why draw? Does the artist respond to an inner urge to reproduce? Is this idea of beauty a response of the mind to the horrible? Could atrocity push us to see beauty where we have never seen it? In this article we propose to present some clandestine productions made in the camps and to question their status which seems to defy the concept of decorative art and pushes us to rethink the notion of beauty.

Keywords

• concentration camps
• holocaust art
• camp artists