This is a fascinating and very powerful site on art produced by inmates, specifically at Auschwitz, during their incarceration. Here we can see how art can transcend the most horrific of circumstances and the power of the image/art as a form of documentation. The art work is from a number of artist inmates, with varying degrees of proficiency using a number of different medium: scraps of paper, ink, charcoal, etc. An interesting fact from the exhibit’s site states: “The majority of artists who worked at Auschwitz were Polish political prisoners, while most who died there were Jewish artists.” While we are understanding Maus through Spiegeleman’s understanding (a son of a Shoah survivor) , this site allows you to see the artistic depictions/expressions of actual survivors. http://lastexpression.northwestern.edu/intro_frameset.htm
Here is another interesting article about an artist and Auschwitz survivor who did many paintings for Josef Mengele. Stan Lee, Neal Adams and Joe Kubert got together to create a comic telling the story of Dena Babbitt, the survivor, from her youth and early experiences with art to her arrival at Auschwitz and the art she produced there. Adams, Lee and Kubert have petitioned for a museum that is housing Babbitt’s work to return them to her, something she has had difficulty convincing the museum to do. It also mentions a graphic novel by Kubert that is also about the holocaust called Yossel. Kubert is also Jewish and was born in Poland but grew up in the U.S. I’m really curious to check his comic out when we finish Maus.
and one more on Spiegelman’s Maus and Jewish comic book artists, Jewish graphic novels and their influence on the comic book universe: