Shards of the Shoah in R. B. Kitaj's Painting If Not, Not (1976)

Abstract

Abstract:This article discusses R. B. Kitaj's painting If Not, Not (1976) with reference to issues of aesthetic representation of the Holocaust, in which Kitaj creates a cultural site for bearing witness for the Jewish victims. Striving to depict the unimaginable, Kitaj's method endorses meaning. Juxtaposing ambiguous, discordant images, he evokes a broken modern world and serves traumatic memory.