Without knowing we know

In Vienna, we visited the Albertina Museum, which houses a combination of traditional and contemporary art. Currently featured is the work of Gottfried Heinwein, a contemporary Austrian artist whose work explores violence toward the weak and helpless-- everything from sadism, Nazism, to school shootings. His adoration of the Magi piece depicts the Wise Men as Nazi officers interrogating the mother of Jesus and reminds us they were deployed because a tyrant wanted to murder the Christ Child-- A foreshadowing of Hitler's "final solution."

The images, which include children being tortured, are difficult to view but very powerful. I am including only a few mild examples.

Heinwein believes it is the function of art to remind us of what we know, without realizing we know it. Reminded me of the play we saw about art in Terezin.