Last Portrait: Painting for Posterity

In this exhibition catalogue, are nearly 200 portraits from the Yad Vashem Art collection, all of them created by 21 artists who strove to immortalize their friends in the ghettos and camps. Each portrait in the exhibition binds together three stories: that of the subject, the artist, and the work itself. The exhibition "Last Portrait" testifies to the tremendous creative drive that moved Jewish artists from different backgrounds to execute entire series of portraits, despite appalling living conditions and lacking crucial tools of the trade. This did not happen in one isolated case, nor was it incidental: the phenomenon occurred simultaneously in dozens of ghettos and concentration camps throughout those terrible years.