Art, Music and Education As Strategies for Survival: Theresienstadt 1941-1945 [Paperback]

Anne D. Dutlinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001

The Bauhaus and its influences are to be found throughout Twentieth-Century art and design; the architecture of Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, and the art of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky being among the most widely recognized instances. Perhaps the most poignant example of this influence, however, may be understood through the life of a little-known student of the Bauhaus who entered its first class in 1919-Friedl Dicker, whom Gropius described as "a distinguished, rare talent...The multidimensional nature of her talent and her indomitable energy received the highest esteem..."

Friedl Dicker was a prolific and multi-talented artist, producing work in theatre, architecture, textiles, graphic design, drawing, painting and sculpture; in 1926, in Vienna, she founded Atelier Singer-Dicker with a classmate Franz Singer. In 1934 she was arrested by the Gestapo for anti-Fascist activities and fled to Prague, where she taught art classes for Jewish refugees. In 1942, she was sent to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1942, where she secretly taught art to the children there, gifting them with the tools for the expression of their fears of the hunger, disease and death in their midst. Dicker-Brandeis (she had married in 1936) and thirty of her students perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944. Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival collects for the first time in one volume the children's art of Theresienstadt, unpublished work of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, and historical photographs, as well as numerous essays of interest to historians, art educators/ therapists, and Holocaust scholars-providing an important new interdisciplinary approach to exploring the power of art to teach, express, commemorate, and-perhaps, most importantly-heal. Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival is published in cooperation with the Payne Gallery of Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This volume presents artwork that was hidden in walls and attics of the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, where Jews were imprisoned from 1941 to 1945, and was recovered after the war. Dutlinger (art, Moravian Coll.) has compiled historical accounts of the ghetto and essays by multiple contributors examining the meaning of this art both at the time of its creation and today. Works by Bauhaus artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and other professional artists are included, but most of the pieces reproduced were crafted by children. Dicker-Brandeis taught the children and played a part in hiding the works from the authorities. Each piece is accompanied by information on the fate of the artist: when born, when deported, and whether survived or perished. Although there is some aesthetic discussion, most of the essays deal with the history of the ghetto and how art came to be produced there under brutal conditions that barely sustained life. Recommended for Judaic, academic, and larger public libraries for history as well as art collections. Kathryn Wekselman, M.Ln., Cincinnati
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Anne D. Dutlinger, curator and editor, is an Assistant Professor of Art at Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA. Sybil Milton, Ph.D. is an author, historian and exhibition consultant in Chevy Chase, MD. Michaela Hajkova is the Curator of Painting and Graphics Collection, Jewish Museum, Prague. Vojtech Blodig, Ph.D. is the Deputy Director, Terezn Ghetto Museum, Terezn, Czech Republic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Herodias (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 192874611X
• ISBN-13: 978-1928746119
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #960,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)