This is a painting made after watercolour sketch of Dachau gas chamber.

Why does it look like a sketch? What does this incompleteness add to the meaning of the image? Tate's text about Tuyman's exhibition (2004) and an article in Independent (Glover, 2013) highlight the small size of the painting (50x70cm). Why had Tuymans chosen such a small canvas? How would the large-scale painting differ the perception of the work? How differently-scaled paintings of a gas chamber would work with the concept of "unspeakable"? Do "skin tones" of the painting (Tate, 2004) add to the eeriness of it? Can such painting work without a title?

First of all, this work raises the question of possibility of art not only after the Holocaust, but about the Holocaust. Which is connected to the general theme of surviving and dealing the trauma on a level of the whole society, including second and third generations after the traumatizing event.

#Holocaust #architecture #colour #painting #history #memory