World War II began in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. By 1940, Paris had fallen to the Nazis and the US entered the war after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The war ended in 1945 after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Europe lay in ruins as Russia and the US emerged as rival superpowers in the postwar period. The Holocaust was revealed, with over 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis and horrifying conditions discovered at camps like Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald. Artists struggled to represent the trauma of the war, with many turning to abstract styles to depict the indescribable.

1. World War II
Art 109A: Art Since 1945
Westchester Community College

2. World War II (1939-
1945)
World War II began in
1939 with the German
invasion of Poland
German troops parade through Warsaw, Poland. PK Hugo J.ger, September 1939
Image source: http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

3. World War II (1939-
1945)
In 1940 Paris (which had been the
center of the European avant
garde) fell to the Nazis
Adolf Hitler in Paris, June 23, 1940
Image source: http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

4. World War II (1939-
1945)
The Japanese bombing of
Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought
the United States into the
conflict
Sinking of the USS Virginia, Pearl Harbor, 1941
Image source: http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/pearl_harbor_attack

5. World War II (1939-
1945)
The US bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
brought the war to an end in
1945
Mushroom cloud of smoke billowing 20,000 ft. in the air after atomic explosion over the city
of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 Image source: LIFE

6. Hiroshima before the bombing
Image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima
_and_Nagasaki
Hiroshima after the bombing
Image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima
_and_Nagasaki

7. Europe lay in ruins
Aftermath
Herbert Mason, St. Paul’s, London, during the Blitz, 1940
Wikipedia
William Vandivert, Dresden after the Allied bombing, 1946
Image source: LIFE

8. Aftermath
Russia and the United States
emerged as opposed
superpowers with competing
claims to world dominance.
Harry S. Truman, President of the United States 1945-1953
Image source: http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/record.php?id=100
Joseph Stalin, political leader of the
Soviet Union, 1924-1953

9. Aftermath
Under the “Truman Doctrine”
Russia and the United States
entered the Cold War
Harry S. Truman Delivering the Truman Doctrine Speech, 1947
Image source: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=14687

10. Aftermath
This took the form of an arms race
Image source:
http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/cold-war-
espionage-and-computer-security/
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race

11. Aftermath
And the advent of the “nuclear
age”
Image source: http://www.conelrad.com/books/print.php?id=267_0_1_0

12. Aftermath
The end of the war also
brought revelations of the
Nazi extermination camps
Buchenwald Concentration Camp, April 16, 1945
Image source: LIFE

13. Aftermath
The most shocking
discoveries were made by
British troops at Bergen-
Belsen in April 1945
The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945. A British bulldozer
pushes bodies into a mass grave. Wikimedia
“As they explored No.1 Camp, the
liberators encountered scenes
reminiscent of Dante's Inferno - a
living example of hell on earth.
They discovered 20,000 emaciated
naked corpses lying unburied on
the open ground or in the barrack
blocks. Some inmates had literally
starved to death where they lay,
too weak even to drag their wasted
bodies away from the typhus-
infested corpses that surrounded
them.”
Dr. Stephen A. Hart, “Liberation of the Concentration
Camps,” BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/liberatio
n_camps_04.shtml

14. Aftermath
There were so many corpses
it was necessary to use a
bulldozer to move them to a
mass grave
The Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp April 1945: A British Army bulldozer
pushes bodies into a mass grave at Belsen. - 19 April 1945 Imperial War Museum
Image source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergen_Belsen_Liberation_03.jpg

15. Aftermath
3,000 lives were lost in the
World Trade Center attack
The northeast face of Two World Trade Center (south tower) after being struck by plane in the
southwest face. Image source: Wikipedia

16. Aftermath
An estimated 6 million jews
were killed in Nazi
concentration camps
A British soldier at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, May 1945. The camp was
burned. The sign was put up to tell the world about the horrors that went on there.
Image source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/the_war_ends/teachers_resour
ces.shtml

17. Aftermath
When General Dwight G.
Eisenhower led his troops into
the Nazi concentration camp
at Dachau he wrote: “The
things I saw beggar
description.”
General Dwight Eisenhower and other high ranking U.S. Army officers view the bodies
of prisoners who were killed during the evacuation of Ohrdruf, while on a tour of the
newly liberated concentration camp. National Archives. Image source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ohrdruf_Eisenhower_04649.jpg

18. Aftermath
Many others referred to the
“unspeakable,” “indescribable,”
or “un-representable” nature of
what they had seen
The Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp April 1945: Former guards are made to load
the bodies of dead prisoners onto a lorry for burial. - 17-18 April 1945 IWM
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bergen_Belsen_Liberation_01.jpg

19. Bearing Witness
Although Eisenhower thought
that what he saw was
indescribable, he did do so
anyway – sensing the
necessity of bearing witness
for future generations
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945
Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_Dwight_D._Eisenhower.jpg

20. Bearing Witness
The necessity of “bearing
witness” to the trauma of war
was the most compelling
concern for the postwar
generation of artists
George Grosz, Painter of the Hole I, 1947

21. Bearing Witness
The challenge they faced was
to represent something that
was unrepresentable
Walter E. Cummings, Buchenwald Ohrdruf Corpses
Image source: Image source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buchenwald_Ohrdruf_Corpses_63512.jpg

22. Bearing Witness
Many of them chose an
abstract style, believing it
was the only way to
represent what could not be
described by more
conventional means
Pablo Picasso, Charnel House, 1945
Museum of Modern Art

23. Postwar
Abstraction
In the immediate aftermath of
the war, artists on both sides
of the Atlantic arrived at
abstract styles independently
Arshile Gorky, Charred Beloved II, 1946
National Gallery of Canada

24. Postwar
Abstraction
While abstract expressionism
was emerging in the United
States in the 1940’s, its
European counterpart, l’art
informel, was developing in
France
Jean Fautrier, Nude, 1943 (from the Otages series)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

25. Postwar
Abstraction
New approaches to figuration
also registered the trauma of
war
Alberto Giacometti, Man Pointing, 1946
Museum of Modern
Arthttp://www.moma.org/collection/works/81779?locale=en
Jean Dubuffet, Triumph and Glory
(Corps de dame series), 1950.
Guggenheim Museum

26. Postwar
Abstraction
Our study of postwar art
will begin in Europe, but it
is important to keep in mind
that American Abstract
Expressionism was
emerging at the same time
Nina Leen, The Irascibles, 1950
LIFE Magazine

27. Web Resources
Audio Slideshow of the Liberation of Belsen, with the original BBC radio broadcast
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4445811.stm
Liberation of the Concentration Camps –BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/liberation_camps_01.shtml
United States Holocaust Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/