In October 1943, shortly before her deportation, the young German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon gave Life? or Theatre? – her monumental series of semi-autobiographical artworks – to a friend for safekeeping. Upon arrival at Auschwitz, aged 26, newly married and pregnant, Salomon was murdered, and it would be many years before Life? or Theatre? would be exhibited.
Subtitled Ein Singspiel, a play with music, the work comprises more than 700 multilayered gouaches,
