Quoted in "Artist paints 'The Simpsons' characters as Holocaust victims outside Milan memorial/Shoah Memorial Foundation says while AleXsandro Palombo did not consult with them before creating the artwork, they 'don’t find it particularly harmful'" (Times of Israel).
The president of the foundation said: "We appreciate the intention behind it, and don’t find it particularly harmful."
The artist explains it like this: "These works are a visual stumble that allows us to see what we no longer see. The most terrible things can become reality and Art has the duty to remember them because it is a powerful antidote against oblivion. The horror of the Jewish genocide must be transmitted without filters to the new generations to protect humanity from other horrors such as the Shoah."
A visual stumble. Does the artist mean that the passerby stumbles upon the work of art? Does he concede that he is stumbling by mixing these discordant cultural elements? It seems most likely that he means that the viewer is stopped and pays attention because we recognize the Simpsons, and the inappropriateness of the Simpsons in this context forces us to think again of the Holocaust. Even to think the Simpsons don't belong in a death camp is to think about what the death camps were. Possible intended insight: No one belongs in a death camp.
If the artist had asked for permission, the foundation (I presume) would have had to say no. It is choosing now not to express offense, but it's easy to see how offense could be expressed: This artist is promoting himself and making light of the Holocaust. Is the president's bland statement better than an expression of offense (or an expression of appreciation for the art)?
Here's the artist's Instagram page, which may help you think about what he's trying to do.
Posts
49 comments:
I think you have it right. It's meant to be jarring. I like it, and immediately took it the way you describe as "most likely."
It’s an indictment of our time that the first thought when encountering a piece of art is “What do you think? Should this be removed?”
Is this guy paying royalty fees to the owners of the IP? The Simpsons aren’t in the public domain. Disney Co. would never allow this guy to steal from it.
None of them, Marge especially, would have any hair in a concentration camp. I think that would've been more impactful.
Clicked through. He’s stealing Disney’s IP; Little Mermaid and Snow White.
Protected speech as political commentary or parody? Not under the Mutant of Omaha case!
Easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
The "visual stumble" metaphor by the artist might be alluding to the "stumble stones" ("Stolpersteine") that have been placed throughout Germany, marking by a plaque in the sidewalk outside their homes the last place Jews and others stood before they were sent off to the concentration camps. Tourists and passersby "stumble" across the names of actual victims as they walk the streets of Germany. Very powerful.
He left out the bald heads, loss of 60% of their body weight, hollowed out eyes, and tattooed numbers on their arms. He could have had them in an action pose, like helping to toss emaciated bodies into a pit.
I'm sure he meant to be hard hitting, but it seems lazy to me. Not really getting the situation at all.
By the way, if anyone wants an actual 'feel' for the Holocaust, they would have to sit through the documentary, "Shoah", by Claude Lanzmann. A 9 hour study of what happened, by interviewing the townspeople who lived around and/or worked in the concentration camps. Their callousness, matter-of-fact relaying of what took place is jarring. Basically it is testimony from witnesses, participants, and survivors of a few camps, painting a full picture.
I saw it years ago. It's haunting to see how easy it was/is for humans to do what they do.
the Simpsons don't belong in a death camp is to think about what the death camps were. Possible intended insight: No one belongs in a death camp.
THIS is what makes it so powerful.. If the Simpsons could end up there, *i* could end up there.
DOH!
Blastfax Kudos said...
None of them, Marge especially, would have any hair in a concentration camp. I think that would've been more impactful.
Yes definitely.. Except; then no one (not many) would recognize them as The Simpsons
Heartless Aztec said...
Easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
Isn't that what Hitler said about Danzig? Too soon? It's Too, isn't it? sorry
Cowabunga, Jude!
"Don't find it particularly harmful" is the antonym of "some people like it".
There are lots of Jewish references in the Simpsons. Will I be the first to mention Krusty the Clown? He actually finds out, as an adult, that he is Jewish (like John Kerry and Madeleine Albright), and tries to find out what he can about what this means. What history have the Jews had? What is Judaism?
Of course Lisa steps up with a lot of information. She takes him through the history up to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, not long after the time of Christ. Krusty is kind of shaken up. There's been a lot of slaughter and injustice, the Jews have suffered terribly, hoping somehow to redeem themselves with God. The destruction of the Temple is a new horror. Surely things get better from now on? The Jews have an easier time? Lisa: not really, no.
I see that multiple people have commented that the piece would have benefited with a nod toward realism, but I think the artist's message is one that is more easily absorbed in modern culture - that it was anybody, sometimes unexpectedly falling under that malevolent gaze. It's just as shocking this way, maybe more so.
Not all of the Holocaust victims had tattoos on their forearms. It was camp-specific, if I recall - Auschwitz put them on the left forearm.
And Hitler didn't ask for forgiveness, he demanded acceptance.
The Jews really need to come up with a better way to market the Holocaust.
Posing fictional characters in front of a Holocaust memorial?
Um,anybody else think this is a backfire?
“ Um,anybody else think this is a backfire?”
I found it extremely effective, precisely because of the visual stumble.
Krusty always knew he was Jewish. His father was a rabbi, and they had been estranged for years. Lisa and Bart led them to reconcile.
A real effort at "never again" would focus on the death camps being run today.
The longer this focuses on Nazis, the more it becomes about making the Jews a protected class.
Why not Bugs Bunny? He was around in the 40s.
"I found it extremely effective, precisely because of the visual stumble."
Because the Nazis' really had it in for...cartoon characters?
Well, we certainly wouldn't want another Shoah aimed at the Simpsons.
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"Blastfax Kudos said...
None of them, Marge especially, would have any hair in a concentration camp. I think that would've been more impactful."
A more historically accurate depiction would be showing the kids being selected for immediate extermination when they arrived at the camp. Mothers with young children were quite likely to be picked for immediate death as well. Whether Homer would've been picked for forced labor is doubtful given his poor physical condition.
https://www.holocaustmatters.org/holocaust-selection-process/
Bandera's boys got to the Simpsons!
Oh FFS.
I always knew that Shelbyville would go too far one day.
"I found it extremely effective, precisely because of the visual stumble."
@Laurel: Because the Nazis' really had it in for...cartoon characters?
You have missed the concept of the visual stumble — it is so jarring that it forces a moment of intellectual re-examination. One, I, would expect yet another depiction of Jews suffering in the death camps. Having seen so many, it is possible to become somewhat inured to them. Inserting cartoon characters in place of what is expected is so jarring that it, for me, negated inurement.
So, absolutely nothing to do with cartoon characters, per se.
"You know, I'm no art critic, but I know what I hate. I don't hate this. Your painting is bold but beautiful."
Marge: Hello, my name is Marge Simpson and I painted this. Maybe you'd like to know what possessed me to do it.
Well, I guess I wanted to show that beneath Mr. Burns' fearsome head... with its cruel lips, spiteful tongue and evil brain... there was a frail, withered body, perhaps not long for this world... as vulnerable and beautiful as any of God's creatures.
Dr. Hibbert: Yes! Provocative, but powerful.
Woman: He's bad, but he'll die. So I like it.
Mr. Burns: Marge, a word please. You know, I'm no art critic, but I know what I hate. I don't hate this. Your painting is bold but beautiful. And incidentally, thanks for not making fun of my genitalia.
Marge: I thought I did.
Mothers with young children were quite likely to be picked for immediate death as well.
Friendly amendment: change “quite likely” to “nearly certainly”. Bart might have escaped an immediate trip to the gas chamber but Lisa would have been sent along with her mother and sister.
D'Oy !
Geez. It works. Critique of details like hair and tattoos misses the point entirely.
In the vast crime that was the Holocaust, many victims never wore striped clothes--they went straight to the gas chambers or the corpse pits. Some--the elites of the Warsaw Ghetto, rich or connected Hungarian Jews--might have arrived at a death camp with the younger men being healthy enough for work for a short while . . .
I've seen the Stolpersteine in Berlin. They work too, with just a few letters and numbers.
Is this different from the OTHER Holocaust holidy in April or May? Or it that "Rememmber Holocaust week"?
I liked it. I think the point was to take instantly identifiable characters and put them in that horrific context.
For the post-war born, the Holocaust has always been a streaming horror movie that can be shut off and returned to when and if one is so inclined. For the post-Gulf War born, it isn’t even that. A historical oddity of fuzzy origins and improbable, maybe even preposterous, purpose.
---Not all of the Holocaust victims had tattoos on their forearms. It was camp-specific, if I recall - Auschwitz put them on the left forearm.
The first time I saw one of those tattoos I was 12 or 13 years old, with a pal, and feeling quite mature getting lunch at the counter of one of our town's homey-est lunch joints. A busy weekday, we must have had one of those half-day breaks from the school routine for a "professional day."
Two hard-working men ran the lunch counter, and when one of them reached in front of me to clear someone's dirty dishes away, the tattoo was right under my nose on his forearm. The ink was medium blue, if I recall correctly, and the number was crude and not perfectly aligned. Nothing pretty or artistic; not a sailor's anchor, say, as my father had. Just brutally pointed about its function, a relatively long number.
I was surprised, and, by the second beat, understood what I was looking at; so then shocked. I remember what a strange moment it had become, as I was sitting up there to get lunch made for me in our very safe, super-nice town, to find I was intersecting in this small way with one of the worst episodes of the 20th century. A vivid reminder for this protected adolescent. I didn't want to meet the man's eyes after seeing that, I was so surprised and unsettled by the evidence of his life before Niceville.
A baby. A fetus for social distance. A virtual image to soothe the burden to a conscience.
Offical Remember the Holocaust day is usually just one day. EXCEPT in the USA. Where its Quote: "8-day period, from the Sunday before Yom Hashoah to the Sunday after Yom Hashoah"
It reaches its highpoint on from Evening of Mon, Apr 17, 2023 - Evening of Tue, Apr 18, 2023.
We get 8 days to Remember the Holocaust. But other countries just do it on Jan 27th, probably because of Antisemtism.
Here's link to your Government subsidized USA Holocaust Rememberance Calendar, so you won't forget: https://www.ushmm.org/remember/days-of-remembrance/resources/calendar
One more thing for antisemites like Ye.
The ADL and SPLC gets very upset when you say something antisemtic before, during, or after a Jewish holiday or celebration. They'll say something like "To say this is bad enough, but to say it during/just before/Just after Jewish Holiday/celebration X is intolerable".
And given the large number of Jewish Holidays, celebrations, and/or Holocaust rememberance days, this can be a problem. I suggest you not only get a "Remeberance days Calendar" you get a calendar with all the Jewish holidays. That way you can time your antisemetic remarks/tweets for the right times to lessen the offense.
Tim in Vermont said, "I always knew that Shelbyville would go too far one day."
It was the collapse of the monorail project. Shelbyville and North Haverbrook never forgave Springfield and especially never forgave Marge. They proposed a final solution to the Springield problem.
Also, all glory to the hypno-toad! Love your avatar.
This somehow more effective than a life sized picture from the camps?
Ahmadinejad smiles.
Meanwhile, we inject children in a mass experiment.
Now let's do "Maus."
Wasn’t Marg’s father Jewish?
Temujin ... Thanks for the heads up! Looks like it's still available - https://www.criterion.com/films/27968-shoah
As Roberto Duran said:
No Maus, No Maus.
I'd going to suggest we make Holocaust rememberance week a national holiday but that would mean those Goddamn lazy workers would get more time off. So, I say to hell with it.
Yes! The Simpsons!
"All of Germany's problems are due to the bicyclists and the Jews!" "Why the bicyclists?" "Why the Jews?"
No cartoon characters could approach the level of revulsion found in historic pictures and footage. A pointless, simple-minded effort.
"No cartoon characters could approach . . . "
Who set that standard?
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