Ziva Amishai-Maisels

Zîwā ʿAmmîšay-Maizelś

A study of the extent to which the Holocaust - as a major historical event - influenced Western art. Pt. I (pp. 3-127), "Depiction, " discusses many artists and their works. Pt. II (pp. 131-366), "Interpretation, " analyzes primary Holocaust symbols, biblical imagery, "the crucified Jew, " myths, abstraction, and Jewish identity. Pp. 367-509 contain notes to the above chapters, and pp. 511-546 give an extensive selected bibliography. The plates contain reproductions of 560 paintings and drawings.

The Influence of the Holocaust on the Visual Arts

Depiction and Interpretation

Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.)

N. Y.) Jewish Museum (New York

Every so often, the organizers of an art exhibition attempt to address head-on issues of interest in the world of contemporary politics. Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890-1990 represents such an undertaking. With the break-up of the Soviet Union, countries and cultures under Soviet control suddenly opened up to the West. In the past few years, as information has begun to flow more freely, art historians have found themselves having to re-examine their subjects and concerns in the light of newly accessible information. Nowhere is this situation more apparent than in the study of Jewish artists in Russia. Until recently, books and catalogues written in the West have concentrated on work done by Russian Jewish artists in exile. Now, for the first time, an international group of scholars has been assembled to address the last hundred years of art produced by Jews living in Russia itself. Given the present state of research, Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890-1990 - which documents an exhibition organized by The Jewish Museum, New York - purposely proposes more questions than it answers. A lucid historical overview by historian Michael Stanislawski followed by seven thought-provoking essays by an international roster of art historians who address, in chronological sequence, the difficult, frequently uplifting history of Jewish art in Russia in the modern period.

Ziva Amishai-Maisels

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