Joseph and His Brothers II 1966

Peter Lipman-Wulf created this print, Joseph and His Brothers II, using etching, a technique involving acid to cut into a metal plate. It depicts a biblical story through a lens that we can understand as being filtered through the artist's own experience of social trauma and displacement in Europe in the mid-twentieth century. The image layers text and figure, combining personal expression with historical narrative. The story refers to the Book of Genesis, where Joseph's ability to interpret dreams makes his brothers jealous. Lipman-Wulf made this artwork in the United States after fleeing Nazi Germany. Dreams, in this context, become dangerous weapons of cultural and political subversion. The artist may be commenting on the situation of Jewish people in mid-twentieth-century Europe. To understand it better, scholars might consult historical records of Jewish émigré communities in the US, along with literary and artistic responses to the Holocaust. Art is not created in a vacuum. The meanings of art are contingent on historical context.