Artibus et Historiae no. 17 (IX)

1988, ISSN 0391-9064

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ZIVA AMISHAI-MAISELS - The Iconographic Use of Abstraction in Jankel Adler's Late Works

The fluctuation of Jankel Adler's style during World War II between abstraction and figuration has been explained until now in purely stylistic terms. In this article, the reasons for this development are seen to derive from Adler's war-time experiences and from his attempts to deal with the Holocaust in his art. The development of this reaction is traced from Girl with Rocking Toy, of 1941, through the major works of 1943, Destruction, Beginning of a Revolt, and No Man's Land, in all of which the stylistic fragmentation of the figure is shown to have a distinct iconographic meaning. This is equally true of Adler's enigmatic Treblinka, of 1948, whose pictorial and stylistic sources are explored. In the final analysis, Adler's use of abstraction is shown to result from his need to express a current, frightening reality from a safe distance.