Way of Perpetuation: Visible and Invisible in a Visual Event

(Based on Analysis of Fine art Works of the 20th Century)

Abstract

There are numerous ways of perpetuating historical memory, many of which are associated with documents, archival storage, research, publication, and popularization. However, one can only wish that the academic work became read by a broad mass of readers: as a rule, it falls into the field of view of only a narrow circle of specialists. In addition, the history of the XXth century shows especially clearly how much speculation on historical material is generated by tendentious concepts and subordinated to the political or social spite of the day. At the same time, culture from ancient times provides an opportunity to perpetuate the event in the images of art, linking this process with the motive of a hero achieving immortality or, in any case, gaining a second life in the memory of generations. The recent history of World War II has also become the subject of numerous works of art. One plot in it, namely the Holocaust of the Jewish people, was also reflected in works of art. Artists A. N. Pregel (1907–1984) and L. G. Saksonov (b. 1929) created their Holocaust images, and it seems that these visual events can arouse reader empathy, activate perception and thereby preserve the emotional significance of a long-standing tragedy for generations. The article analyzes their works in a line with the methodology proposed by the phenomenologist and theologian J.-L. Marion, which is based on the analysis of the relation between visible and invisible in the visual arts.