Despite the hundreds of attempts, police terror and the concentration camps have proved to be more or less impossible subjects for the artist; since what happened in them was beyond the imagination, it was therefore also beyond art and all those human values on which art is traditionally based.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author argues that certain horrors like concentration camps exceed the capacity of art to represent them without violating human values.
- In plain terms
- Some evils are too extreme to be turned into art.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize limits of art representing extreme horror.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can art heal the unrepresentable?
- Where do you draw the line?
Another view
Ignoring these subjects risks forgetting the victims entirely.
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