The Effect of WWII on the Visual Arts.

The global trauma of World War II, particularly the events that took place at Auschwitz and Hiroshima, caused dramatic changes in the visual arts. New ideas and criticisms of culture and society had come about, and artists were responding--consciously and unconsciously--to the war. New ideas about the arts had emerged shortly after the war. The long-standing notion that the arts make society more civilized and raise people above their instincts of fear and violence was …

…that they could no longer continue making art in the same way that they did before the war, acting as if nothing had happened. Performativity and politicized art were perhaps the most significant of these changes. Whether unconscious or conscious, performative or not, responses to the horrific events of Auschwitz and Hiroshima can be seen in many postwar art, and the trauma of these two events can be seen even in the art of today.