Friedl Dicker-Brandeis: Vienna 1898-Auschwitz 1944

By Elena Makarova   

Published to complement a traveling exhibition which debuted at Atlanta's William Brennan Heritage Museum in December 2001, this is the first publication ever to assemble the diverse oeuvre of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Part memorial, part biographical document, the catalog examines the artist's life through her many complex human relationships and through her artistic experiments as a student of Bauhaus in Weimar, as a constructivist designer, and later as an inmate of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. 

Authors Makarova (The Herbs from Odessa) and Seidman-Miller (Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance) ultimately establish Dicker-Brandeis as an early pioneer of art therapy and explore her role as a creative guide to the children interned at Theresienstadt for many a way station en route to Auschwitz, where she actually died. 

Through the inclusion of previously unseen paintings and drawings as well as the artist's private correspondence, this volume provides a valuable window onto the life and work of a prolific, tremendously influential, and largely underrecognized contemporary of Paul Klee and Bertolt Brecht. It also provides a poignant view of everyday reality in this turbulent period of modern history. 

More than a biography, the book contains over 400 color plates, including reproductions of rare art, letters and photographs gathered from museums and private collections throughout the world.

Hardcover, 256 pages.