Joseph Budko (Płońsk, 1888-Jerusalem, 1940). Daughter of Israel. Illustration of a poem
by H.N. Bialik. Woodcut. Before 1923. Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris.
Jennifer Stern is the Visual Resources Curator in the
Art History Department at Brandeis University. She has
been studying Yiddish language and culture since 2018.
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Until recently, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as modern Jewish art.
Of course I’d heard of Marc Chagall (he was my maternal grandmother’s cousin). And I remember seeing a Ben Shahn or two in the homes of more upmarket Jewish acquaintances over the years. Somewhere along the line I picked up that certain famous artists – like Mark Rothko – were Jews.
But the idea that modern Jewish art was an actual phenomenon – something that many individuals had thought about deeply and devoted their lives to developing – never entered my mind.
When I began to study Yiddish in 2018, I started seeing striking illustrations accompanying classic Yiddish texts. El Lissitzky’s wonderful pictures in Mani Leib’s Yingl-Tsvingl-Khvat (“The Mischievous Boy,” 1919) made a particular impression. But somehow these remarkable images didn’t inspire me to start thinking systematically about modern Jewish art. I subconsciously assumed that El Lissitzy and the others were more or less one-offs: exceptions to a perceived “rule” that Jews in the first half of the 20th century hadn’t played much of a role in art. And if Jews like Chaim Soutine had become famous artists, they had been “Jewish artists” only in that they were born Jews and became professional artists. Little seemed meaningfully Jewish about their work.
The revelation came when I stumbled across a reproduction of Issachar Ber Ryback’s Old Synagogue (1917) in the Forverts. I’d never heard of Ryback, and had never seen an image like this: a shattered Cubist-influenced depiction, stark and apocalyptic, of an old-world synagogue. I was entranced, and promptly googled Ryback. I had discovered my first modern artist who focused primarily – almost exclusively – on Jewish subject matter. And as I read more, I began to grasp that Ryback was part of an entire world of pre-Holocaust Jewish artists in Europe (and the US via immigration) who put Jewishness front and center in their work. They understood their own art Jewishly, and several wrote eloquently about their mission as specifically Jewish artists. Chagall suddenly had context.
Of course this raises the question of how I worked so long in the art field without being aware of most Jewish art. Part of it related to my own evolving sense of Jewishness. But much of the issue was external. Jewish art has a visibility problem.
Apart from Chagall, I don’t remember any Jewish artists being discussed as Jews in any art history courses I took in college or graduate school. A handful of artists were identified in passing as Jewish, but Jewishness per se rarely came up. El Lissitzky’s Suprematist paintings were taught, but not his early Jewish graphic works. Painter-printmakers like Ryback, Sarah Shor, Joseph Budko and a hundred others who identified as Jewish artists were more than talented enough to be mentioned in university-level courses, but they never were.
I’m not suggesting anything as dramatic as a conspiracy of silence; but I do think there’s a tendency to see anything Jewish as interesting only to Jews, not to a broader audience. I’ve also noticed hesitation among Jews when it comes to talking about ourselves: as if there’s something vaguely embarrassing about Jewishness, or as if we fear being seen as “show offs” if we celebrate Jewish cultural achievements. That’s how I read the decision in summer 2022 to hold an exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York that downplayed Jewishness almost to the point of erasing it. Would any other group see it as somehow commendable to efface their own presence from an exhibition in their own dedicated museum?
This is the purpose of Jewish Art Journeys: to investigate, analyze and celebrate Jewish art. Exactly how to define “Jewish art” will be a constant theme, either overt or underlying. Our blog’s front page lays out the issues as we see them at this moment. We will look and speak both with pride and with a critical eye at Jewish art as we understand it. Of course we are very far from the only people doing this kind of work. But Jewish art needs and deserves more voices amplifying its distinctive achievements: and we want to dedicate our particular set of skills to that conversation. Each of us has our own interests, and undoubtedly our perspectives will evolve over time. We will also invite others to contribute their thoughts.
This is a journey indeed, and we invite you to join us.
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