Through a Narrow Window

Not long after the end of World War II, two suitcases from Terezín, the so-called model ghetto designed by the Nazi propaganda machine to showcase creative endeavors, were delivered to members of what remained of the Jewish community of Prague. The contents of the suitcases included children's drawings, paintings, and collages made at Terezín thanks to the efforts of a teacher interned there. Rediscovered in the 1950s, the pictures, by then housed at the Jewish Museum in Prague, were exhibited, and over time some were published. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was the remarkable woman who taught art to many of Terezín's children before she was killed at Auschwitz. While she has been valorized for her heroic efforts as a teacher, her approach to teaching art has remained unexamined.

This book and the accompanying exhibition, curated by Linney Wix at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, offer a closer look at the methods and philosophy of Dicker-Brandeis's teaching, the history behind her approach, and its possible psychological effects on the children she taught. The book includes biographical and art historical information on Dicker-Brandeis, and sheds light on her roles as an artist, teacher, and heroine behind Nazi lines in the Second World War.

Published in cooperation with the University of New Mexico Art Museum.

This is a tribute to Friedl Dicker-Brandeis art of Vienna in 1920s, and her teaching methods to Czech children sent to Terezin Concentration Camp north of Prague during WWII. This elegant, well-documented collection does several things of great importance. First, it traces the career of one of the Bauhaus first students, providing insights into a legendary school. Second, it shows in moving detail how Friedl Dicker-Brandeis continued to create beautiful objects and to teach young people in horrifying circumstances. Dicker-Brandeis story is one of quietly defiant creativity in the face of appalling destruction.
Linney Wix is associate professor in the art education program at the University of New Mexico.