Envisioning Evil
“The Nazi Drawings” by Mauricio Lasansky
Rachel McGarry
Envisioning Evil is an accompaniment to the exhibition of Mauricio Lasansky’s The Nazi Drawings, thirty-three monumental drawings examining the horrors of the Holocaust, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2021. Curator Rachel McGarry provides comprehensive biographical, cultural, and historical context for the artist and the creation of this series in three essays and an illustrated timeline.
Internationally renowned as a printmaker, Mauricio Lasansky (1914–2012) unleashed his brilliant draftsmanship in his self-titled series The Nazi Drawings. The Argentina-born artist created the body of work largely in the 1960s, as the televised trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann awakened the world to the depths of Nazi atrocities. Lasansky’s haunting interpretations reflect his response to the unfolding details. “I was full of hate, poison, and I wanted to spit it out,” he said.
The thirty-three monumental drawings, made from charcoal, wash, and collage, examine the horrors of the Holocaust, especially the suffering of women and children. The series became Lasansky’s most famous and notable work and was included among the opening exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1967.
Envisioning Evil accompanies the exhibition of The Nazi Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2021. Curator Rachel McGarry provides comprehensive biographical, cultural, and historical context for the artist and the creation of this series in three essays and an illustrated timeline. McGarry also traces Holocaust awareness before and after the 1961 Eichmann trial and examines the role of art, literature, and popular media in bringing the genocide into public discourse. Rabbi Barry D. Cytron, former chaplain and professor of religious studies at Macalester College, contributes an essay on the international religious response to revelations about Nazi crimes and their relation to Lasansky’s art.
Created as a reaction to the crimes committed against the Jews during the Holocaust, The Nazi Drawings endure as a condemnation against all persecution and extermination of humanity.
$39.95 paper ISBN 978-1-5179-1051-8
160 pages, 37 b&w photos, 81 color plates, 9 x 13
Rachel McGarry, PhD, is associate curator in the department of European art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Rabbi Barry D. Cytron, PhD, is a retired professor and chaplain at Macalester College.
Table of Contents
Director’s Foreword
Katie Crawford Luber
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Nazi Drawings
Rachel McGarry
Artist Statement
Note to Reader
The Holocaust in Press, Culture, and Art:
Before and After Eichmann
Rachel McGarry
Mauricio Lasansky: A Life and Art of Compassion
Rachel McGarry
Art and Faith: Crafting a Renewed Relationship
After Auschwitz
Rabbi Barry D. Cytron
Envisioning Evil: “The Nazi Drawings”
by Mauricio Lasansky
Rachel McGarry
Plates: “The Nazi Drawings”
Illustrated Timeline
Index
Reproduction Credits