The Holocaust art of Gershon Iskowitz, Isaac Applebaum and Yehouda Chaki: A critical approach in relation to the philosophical writings of Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt and Julia Kristeva

Abstract

This study is a philosophical exploration of the Holocaust representations of three Canadian Jewish artists. The focus is on selected works by Gershon Iskowitz (1921–1988), Isaac Applebaum (b. 1946) and Yehouda Chaki (b. 1938). The objective is to explore these works in relation to the writings of Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995), Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) and Julia Kristeva (b. 1941) respectively. Some of the issues to be addressed are: how Iskowitz's representations correspond to Levinas' ethics; how Applebaum's installation Man Makes Himself (1985) exemplifies Arendt's ideas on totalitarianism and the “banality of evil”; and how Chaki's images in the exhibition Mi Makir: The Search for the Missing (1999) are representations of the abject as defined by Kristeva.