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If Not, Not


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Artist: R.B. Kitaj
Date: 1984 - 1985
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 152. 4 x 152.4 cm
Event: Holocaust
Motif: Landscapes  



The work If Not, Not combines various elements. Kitaj reproduces the perspective of a kaleidoscope in which things appear in fragments. The background for this painting is the picture Tempesta by Giorgione. The traditional idea of harmony between mankind and nature is upset in this mixture of different cultural elements. Kitaj mixes wallpaper patterns showing Japanese trees with dead bodies and squatting people. The picture reveals different attempts at meaning, held together by the looming gate of Auschwitz. This style of depiction presents historical reality as too diverse to be comprehensible. But the diversity is braced, or rather overshadowed, by the omnipresence of the horror of the Holocaust.

Credits: © 2001, R.B. Kitaj, Courtesy, Marlborough Gallery, New York.