Foreground: Emmanuel Mané-Katz (1894-1962). Reading, 1931. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ), Paris. Background: Emmanuel Mané-Katz (1894-1962). Still-Life with Sacred Texts, 1931. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ), Paris.
Photo by Gintare Grigenaite, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
“Litvak Artists in Paris,” a new exhibition at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Vilnius, is a significant artistic and historical event. The works on display come from over a dozen museums, including more than 30 pieces from mahJ (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme) in Paris. Vilnius is far away and I won’t be able to see the show in person – but curator Dr. Vilma Gradinskaite generously shared installation photographs and other materials. Even in photos, it’s clear that the galleries are luminous and well-designed, and that paintings and sculptures are effectively intermingled. And the quality of the artworks themselves is strikingly apparent. This is art that deserves to be better known.
The exhibition – the first of its kind in a Baltic State – presents 130 artworks by Jewish artists born in historical Lithuania (Litvaks), but who left their native land for Paris in the first decades of the 20th century. Defining “Lithuania” is complex, and the exhibition uses “Litvak” in its broadest sense (it's a Yiddish word that specifically refers to Jews from lands once belonging to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania). For example, Vitebsk-born Marc Chagall is included, though his home city hadn’t been part of Lithuanian territories since 1772.
The attractions of Paris for artists during the first half of the 20th century are well known. Many of the most famous were not French: Spaniard Pablo Picasso heads a diverse and distinguished list. But the significant Jewish presence among these artists is much less well known, especially outside France. Most of these Jewish painters and sculptors were identified with the so-called “École de Paris.” Historians define this “school” variously, assigning it different membership, stylistic characteristics and beginning/end dates depending on their viewpoint. But from a Jewish perspective, the significant years were the 1920s and 1930s. This iteration of the École de Paris was named in 1925 by the French art critic, André Warnod, to describe a loosely affiliated group of foreign-born artists active in the Montparnasse neighborhood. Their styles engaged freely with Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism and other movements. All shared a fascination with depicting contemporary Parisian street and café life, by day and by night. Some were portraitists. A large proportion of École de Paris artists were Jews – which was certainly noticed by more chauvinistic French art critics, who accused them of corrupting “pure” French culture. Some Jewish artists in this orbit are still famous: Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine, Lipchitz, Zadkine. Most are lesser or barely known, though Parisians are more aware of them than Americans. Many were Litvaks, born in historically Lithuanian lands. The Vilnius show also includes artists who did not belong to the École de Paris, notably several late-19th-century sculptors.
The exhibition aims to welcome these Jewish artists home to the land of their birth as a “significant piece of the [Lithuanian] mosaic”. The catalogue Introduction, by Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Dr. Arūnas Gelūnas, is forthright about the historical marginalization of Jewish artists: “[T]hese artists…were not held to be a fully-fledged part of Lithuania’s cultural history…they made up a kind of ‘parallel world’ that existed alongside the legitimate Lithuanian art canon…Today, this approach appears unjustified, to say the least…” Some Jews attended art schools in Lithuania (or Russia, like Chagall); but discrimination and disadvantage were rampant. Leaving for the more liberal and dynamic atmosphere of Paris made personal and professional sense.
It’s more than time for Jewish Parisian artists – Litvaks and otherwise – to be more widely recognized and studied. Some artists’ work was almost entirely lost during the War, and these individuals inevitably remain ciphers. But others can and should be better known than they are, especially among English-speakers. The installation photos and catalogue entries make amply clear that this is, quite simply, good art. It stands on its own merits and adds important nuances to the story of 20th-century European visual culture. Here are links that will help readers learn more.
The exhibition naturally raises perennially thorny questions about what exactly constitutes “Jewish art.” Many, even most, of the featured artists rarely – if ever – depicted Jewish themes in their works. Does this mean they were not “Jewish artists” in the same way as those who frequently used Jewish themes, like Chagall and Mané-Katz? Does it matter that non-Jews perceived these artists primarily as Jews – and if so, how and why? Do ethnically Jewish artists by definition create Jewish art even if they never depict a Jewish theme? And how does one recognize a “Jewish theme” anyway? Can eschewing overtly Jewish subjects be a Jewish act? How does the artist’s previous immersion in traditional Jewish life (or lack thereof) influence the way this absence is read? I have no easy answers to these questions – and the purpose of Jewish Art Journeys is, in part, to explore these very issues.
Foreground to background: Mark Antokolski (1840-1902). Portrait of a Girl, 1877. Lithuanian National Museum of Art. Michel Kikoïne (1892-1968). Self-Portrait, 1950. Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne. Arbit Blatas (1908-1999).
Members of the École de Paris. Collection of Darius Lebedzinskas. (Piece furthest back is not identified in the catalogue.)
Photo by Gintare Grigenaite, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Painting: Boris Schatz (1867-1932). Jewish Sage. Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE. Sculptures by various artists.
Photo by Gintare Grigenaite, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Left: Michel Kikoïne (1892-1968). Seated Nude, 1919. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ), Paris.
(Piece on the right is not identified in the catalogue.)
Photo by Gintare Grigenaite, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Foreground: Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Man with a Pig, 1922-23, Private Collection. Background: Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Man-Rooster over Vitebsk, 1925. Private Collection.
Photo by Gintare Grigenaite, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Foreground: Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Etchings from "My Life," 1922. Background left: Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Man Seated on Roof with Violin, 1922-23. Private Collection. Background right: Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Man with a Pig, 1922-23, Private Collection.
Photo by Gintare Grigenaite, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.