Legacies of Silence : The Visual arts and Holocaust Memory - Glen Sujo

This bock and the accompanying exhibitic examine the contribution of artist-witnesse victims and survivors of the Holocaust to post-war culture and the visual arts. A selection of the graphic works produced in internment, in ghettos, transit and concentration camps between 1939 and 1945 makes up the exhibition's core. The majority of these works come from collections in Eastern Europe and Israel.

These are considered alongside artistic precursors and contemporary sources, principally from major collections in the European Community. The book and exhibition seek to re-establish the legitimacy of these works within the narratives of twentieth-century art history and the expanding field of Holocaust studies.

The post-war achievement of a number of artist-survivors is also discussed.

Surprisingly, for art produced in the absence of all contacts with the outside world, the art of internment reveals an unusual awareness of visual and iconographic sources and provides a point of entry to a discussion of representational strategies and artistic intention.

The discussion leads into a comparison of the drawings with personal testimonies and works of literature, combining original archival research with extensive use of secondary sources.

The book accompanies an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London, from 5 April to 27 August 2001.

The author, Glenn Sujo, is an artist with a specialist interest in the continuity of drawing traditions. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and has lectured extensively, most recently at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Israel. His works have been acquired by, among others, the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas.

He has curated several exhibitions, including 'On the Track of Tyranny (1983), 'Drawing on these Shores, A View of British Drawing and its Affinities' (1993) and

'Artists Witness the Shoah' (1995) and has acted as an advisor to institutional collections in Britain and abroad.

Glenn Sujo lives and works in London.