Art of the Holocaust until 1989: Beyond an East/West Divide

hybrid conference

Budapest & online, 8–10 June, 2022

Organized by: Central European University (CEU) Jewish Studies Program, in cooperation with the Museum of Fine Arts – Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI)
Downloadable programme and conference booklet:
https://jewishstudies.ceu.edu/artoftheholocaust
Registration for the online streaming (required):
https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMpf-2hrj4iG9ArioykMj1DAdAuq0AZB5K-
Registration for attending in person (required):
https://forms.gle/8q9QZLZV1YZo1Ckc9

PROGRAMME

DAY 1
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
location: CEU (Budapest V. Nádor u. 15. / N15, room 101)

9.00–9.30
Registration
9.30–10.00
Welcoming remarks
András Kovács, Michael L. Miller (CEU)
Introduction
Agata Pietrasik (Freie Universität, Berlin), Daniel Véri (CEU/KEMKI)
10.00–11.00
Keynote lecture
Rachel Perry (University of Haifa)
Graphic Witnessing “After Auschwitz”: The Album as Medium
11.00–11.30
Coffee break
11.30–13.00
PANEL I: WARTIME AND EARLY POSTWAR ARTISTIC PRACTICES
chair: Agata Pietrasik (Freie Universität, Berlin)
Paweł Michna (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
“Excellent tables and photomontages clearly illustrate all aspects of ghetto life.” Visual Communication Strategies of the Łódź Ghetto
Katharina Langolf (University of Potsdam)
Mark Zhitnitski in the Gulag: Drawing the Shoah in “a Remote Corner of the Country”
Ella Falldorf (Friedrich Schiller University, Jena)
More than Symbols of Resistance? Images of Solidarity in Concentration Camps and their Transformation in the Aftermath of the Holocaust
13.00–14.15
Lunch break
14.15–15.45
PANEL II: WARTIME AND EARLY POSTWAR ARTISTIC PRACTICES AND EXHIBITIONS
chair: Lóránt Bódi (HAS, RCH Institute of History, Budapest)
Anastasia Simferovska (Northwestern University, Chicago)
“I Inscribe Myself into the Book”: Visitors Respond to Poland’s First Holocaust Art Shows
Olga Stefan (University Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iași)
Art of the Holocaust in Romania: Vapniarka as a Case Study
Yelena Lembersky (The Uniterra Foundation, Arlington)
Felix Lembersky’s Babyn Yars. The Paintings and How Soviets Suppressed the Art of the Holocaust
15.45–16.15
Coffee break
16.15–17.45
PANEL III: REPRESENTING THE HOLOCAUST IN FOLK AND VERNACULAR ART
chair: Kristóf Nagy (CEU/KEMKI)
Roma Sendyka (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
Erica Lehrer (Concordia University, Montreal)
Holocaust-Themed Folk (Naïve) Art in Poland (1945–1989)
Magdalena Waligórska (Humboldt University, Berlin)
Transactions over Polish Holocaust-Themed Folk Art in West and East Germany as a Mode of Polish–German Reconciliation
Magdalena Zych (Kraków Ethnographic Museum)
Vernacular Memory of the Holocaust. The Art of Włodzimierz Chajec (1904–1985) and Józef Piłat (1900–1971)
19.00
Dinner for the participants
***
DAY 2
Thursday, June 9, 2022
location: KEMKI (Budapest XIII. Szabolcs u. 33-35. OMRRK campus, building C)

10.00–10.15
Welcoming remarks
Dávid Fehér, Emese Kürti (KEMKI)
10.15–11.45
PANEL IV: HOLOCAUST REPRESENTATIONS DURING THE COLD WAR
chair: Dávid Fehér (KEMKI)
Mariann Farkas (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan)
Representation of the Holocaust by Hungarian Israeli Artists before 1989: Comparative Case Study of Hédi Tarján’s Works
Piotr Słodkowski (Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw)
Informel and the Fight for the Memory of the Holocaust. Figures by Marek Oberländer as Totems
Eckhart J. Gillen (Filmuniversität Potsdam-Babelsberg)
Boris Lurie: Searching for Truth in Images on the German Genocide of European Jews
11.45–12.00
Coffee break
12.00–13.30
PANEL V: HOLOCAUST REPRESENTATIONS DURING THE COLD WAR
chair: Agata Pietrasik (Freie Universität, Berlin)
Mirjam Rajner (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan)
Adolf Weiller’s “Martyrdom Cycle”: Official and Unofficial Holocaust Art in Socialist Yugoslavia
Asta Vrečko (University of Ljubljana)
Depicting Suffering in Concentration Camps: Slovenian Artists Based in Socialist Yugoslavia and in the West
Nataša Ivanović (Lah Contemporary Research Centre, Ljubljana/Bled)
Tomorrow May Be Too Late: Landscape of Holocaust in Zoran Mušič’s Oeuvre
13.30–14.30
Lunch break
14.30–16.30
PANEL VI: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE HOLOCAUST IN EASTERN EUROPE AND BEYOND
chair: Daniel Véri (CEU/KEMKI)
Tamara Kohn (Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires)
Art and the Holocaust in Argentina before the Institutionalization of Memory
Amelia Miholca (Arizona State University, Phoenix)
Romanian Holocaust Art
Eva Janáčová (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague)
Art of the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia: Fritz Lederer and Leo Haas
Jürgen Joseph Kaumkötter (Center for Persecuted Arts, Solingen)
Places and Meanings. The Iconography of Holocaust Art in East and West Europe
16.30–17.00
Coffee break
17.00–17.15
Daniel Véri (CEU/KEMKI)
Recycled Memory: Hungarian Exhibitions in Auschwitz (on-site visit at KEMKI)
***
DAY 3
Friday, June 10, 2022
location: CEU (Budapest V. Nádor u. 15. / N15, room 101)

10.00–11.30
PANEL VII: WARTIME AND EARLY POSTWAR ARTISTIC PRACTICES AND EXHIBITIONS
chair: Rachel Perry (University of Haifa)
Galina Lochekhina (University of Haifa)
Representation of Sexualized Violence in Women’s Graphic Novels: Naomi Judkowski and Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya
Klara Jackl (University of Haifa)
The Pictorial Diary of Dr. Henryk Beck
Paul Bernard-Nouraud (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
Post-Holocaust Art and Post-Memory Art: a Reevaluation
11.30–12.00
Coffee break
12.00–13.30
PANEL VIII: OFFICIAL COMMEMORATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST
chair: Zoltán Kékesi (Center for Research on Antisemitism, Berlin)
Samuel D. Gruber (Syracuse University / International Survey of Jewish Monuments, Syracuse)
Humanizing the Holocaust: The Search for a Figurative Memorial Language
Eirene Campagna (IULM University, Milan)
The Representation of the Shoah before 1989: the Case of the Museum Monument to the Deportee (Carpi) and the Memorial to the Italians in Auschwitz (Block 21)
Olga Ungar (independent researcher, Givatayim)
The Remembrance Triangle: The Case Study of Holocaust Memorials in Novi Sad, Serbia
13.30
Lunch
*
organized by: Agata Pietrasik, Daniel Véri