CHAPTER 1 - ART TO SURVIVE
The Michael Werner collection or the little I had seen of it, pushed me to go further in my thinking since having read the introduction for "Art at War". I knew that Claude Rocca would more than complete the thoughts buzzing around in my head. (I might add that this buzzing went on all night and my dreams were colourful and dramatic). So there had been 900 works in the first exhibition of which I had probably digested 80 and now......400 works by over 100 artists all backed up by film and documentary material. Of its kind, I would think that this is the most important retrospective - ever - on this period. It has never been done before bringing together all the artists who creatively forged resolutely ahead inside interment camps, prisons.....or if they had been fortunate enough to escape such horrendous punishment, many were condemned to the new realties of the «dark days» during the occupation and the Vichy regime. Some, and Picasso as we know, went on working either i