Holocaust Remembrance Day
On the international Holocaust Remembrance Day celebrated on 27 January every year to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, the Vatican Museums remember the horror of the Shoah through an exhibition initiative that, for the third consecutive year, has as its protagonist the Collection of Contemporary Art, and in particular one of its works, identified by thematic affinity, unique creative genesis, strong symbolic value and profound emotional impact.
For 2019, the tragedy of the extermination of the Jews will be commemorated by Dachau, the precious and delicate drawing produced in 1945 by the painter and engraver Anton Zoran Mušič during his imprisonment in the German concentration camp. “I would draw all the time, whenever I could” – thus the artist describes his first approach to drawing and its salvific function. “I'd found some bits of paper in the architects' office and so I holed myself up in the infirmary, the shack where they used to cram in all the sick when there was an outbreak of typhus. The SS were afraid to come in, and so for the first time I was able to draw freely”.
The work (sanguine on cardboard) recently joined the Vatican collections thanks to the generous donation of Giovanna and Armando Santus, and will be specially displayed from 26 January to 2 March 2019 along the museum itinerary dedicated to contemporary art.