Jewish-American Artists and the HolocaustRutgers University Press, 1997 - 138 pages Jewish themes in American art were not very visible until the last two decades, although many famous twentieth-century artists and critics were and are Jewish. Few artists responded openly to the Holocaust until the 1960s, when it finally began to act as a galvanizing force, allowing Jewish-American artists to express their Jewish identity in their work. Baigell describes how artists initially deflected their responses into abstract forms or by invoking biblical and traditional figures and then in more recent decades confronted directly Holocaust imagery and memory. He traces the development of artistic work from the late 1930s to the present in a moving study of a long overlooked topic in the history of American art. |
Common terms and phrases
Altman American art American artists Amishai-Maisels Anne Frank anti-Semitism Art Spiegelman Audrey Flack Auschwitz Barnett Newman Ben Shahn Ben-Zion Bialobroda biblical born Buchenwald cabalah Cahana caust Chafetz Chicago child of survivors children of survivors confront Courtesy create death Depiction and Interpretation emotional Erony European exhibition experiences feel figures German ghetto Golub Graupe-Pillard Greenberg heritage Hirshfield Hitler Holo Holocaust imagery horror human images imagine included installation Israel Jewish culture Jewish identity Jewish Museum Jewish-American artists Jews Judaism Kristallnacht Kuspit Langer Leon Golub letter to author Lipton lives Mark Rothko memorial candle Moses Soyer murder Natan Nuchi Nazi Newman numbers one's Oransky painting panel parents Paris Pier Marton response Rossmer Rothko says scenes sense Shahn shtetl statement story subject matter swastika symbol synagogue Thomas Hart Benton tikkun olam University Press victims viewer visual Wendy Joy Kuppermann William Gropper Witkin witness York