Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, Vienna 1898-Auschwitz 1944
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 Ctr./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. Recommended for collections focusing on modern art and biography. Savannah R. Schroll, Smithsonian Institution Libs., Washington, DCCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.