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Voices about the 'Visions of the
Inferno'
"Blumenbild
mit Fratzen"
Frankl's friend, the physician Prof. Dr.
F. Mlczoch, who knew of the talent for painting exhibited in Frankl's
youth, suggested that he should start painting flowers as a pastime,
claiming this would calm him, was harmonious and peaceful by its very
nature and would give him a chance of bringing an organic order into the
chaos that had descended upon him through no fault of his own and was
now rising from his subconscious to torment him. Yet the flowers painted
by Frankl were disfigured masks, distorted by hate and panic.
One night, awaking once more from
a nightmare, he decided to embark on a work which would reflect the
truth and factuality of his "inferno" through "visions", at the same
time liberate his tortured soul in the act and graphically confront not
only the heirs and descendants of the National Socialist Germany with
the most inhuman years of German history.
Frankl has given us a portrait of
this inferno in numerous paintings characterized by garish colors and
bizarre brushstrokes. What he has painted is at the same time his very
own "inferno" and the inferno of millions of other victims but also the
inferno of the henchman, the stations of "horror", heartrending symbols
of a panorama - the simultaneously frenzied and ossified history of the
Third Reich and its inhumanity, which addled critics of today are
beginning to regard with a kind of proto-fascist nostalgia. The faces of
the tortured and the faceless torturers emerge from Frankl's paintings.
He works synthetically, puts the abstract into concrete shapes,
concentrates on the individual to convey an impression of the whole.
Prof. Dr. Walter Huder
Among the
physiognomies to be found in Adolf Frankl´s paintings, there is only one
"substantial" face, one single face which seems to manifest heroic
determination. It is the countenance of Adolf Eichmann. But the
individual features of this countenance, the mouth, eyes, ears and nose,
are composed - in a way reminiscent of the mannerist painter Arcimboldo
- of emaciated corpses from the camp. The features of the final solution
stare out from beneath the peaked cap with its eagle emblem and silver
braid.
Turning finally to the technique
and colors of Adolf Frankl´s paintings, we cannot fail to recognize the
influence of the Vienna Expressionists and the early work of Oskar
Kokoschka. Viennese painting of the years around 1910 was seeing with
incredible nervousness and anti-naturalistic inclination towards
hypertrophic or cryptic expression. But in the works of Kokoschka or of
the even more expressive Egon Schiele, this all remained related to
aesthetic intentions. In Frankl´s paintings, the expressive techniques
alter their meaning. The method of applying paint, the use of the brush
and the palette knife, looks incoherent, even chaotic. But precisely
because of this it succeeds in reminding us of something inconceivable:
the complete disintegration of civilization and decency in the world of
the camp.
Prof. Dr. Willibald
Sauerländer
We have to see to it
that what happened during the years of National Socialism doesn't get
forgotten and that our younger generation realizes how quickly a
murderous system of that kind can develop, and basically, that it is
therefore necessary to recognize the first signs and to nip them in the
bud. We older people have lived through it and know about it, but it has
to be gotten across to the younger generation - and that is the hard
part!
The best method is dialogue
between young people and those who were eye-witnesses, those who
actually lived through the events. It is also important that exhibitions
like this one here be seen and reflected upon, because what Frankl has
so candidly painted are really the torments of the soul.
It is important to develop
teaching methods which enable members of the younger generation - who
were not themselves involved, who were born 30/40 years after the end of
National Socialism, and who cannot have any sense of personal guilt – to
understand what actually happened and to realize that no effort should
be spared to prevent that sort of thing – and a recurrence is always
possible, not only in Germany – from ever occurring again.
Bundespräsident Roman Herzog
The paintings of Adolf
Frankl give a special poignancy to this protest against the evils of
intolerance, hatred and denial of fundamental human rights. They remind
all of us that the road from human wrongs to human rights is not an easy
one; that we must educate our children and young people with a sense of
openness and comprehension toward other people, their diverse cultures
and their fundamental shared humanity; and that we have to teach them
the importance of protecting and promoting human rights, of refusing
violence and adopting peaceful means for resolving disagreements and
conflicts.
Education for human rights is one
of the main targets of the activities of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights. In this framework, "Visions of the Inferno" is a significant
contribution to the United Nations International Decade for Human Rights
Education (1995-2005). It will also contribute to highlight the
importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a beacon in the
history of humanity, the fiftieth anniversary to the adoption of which
will be celebrated by the international community in 1998.
UN-High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Paintings
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