Jewish Art

Covering nearly two millennia, Jewish Art: A Modern History examines the art made by Jews across Europe, America and Israel. Written by two leading scholars in the field, this is the first broadly accessible book to address the subject in both an introductory and a critical manner. Samantha Baskind and Larry Silver provide a chronological, geographic and thematic framework, to examine Jewish artists against the background of an emerging modernity. The shifting Jewish identities are discussed, as well as the effects of the diaspora and anti-Semitism, which are woven directly into analyses of specific works of art.The authors ask ‘what is Jewish art?’ and examine the ambiguities of the Jewish experience, both religious and cultural. Rather than providing reductive classifications of the subject, they consider the variety of ways Jewish artists have defined themselves and their works. Looking at the work of European artists including Moritz Daniel Oppenheim and Maurycy Gottlieb, Camille Pissarro and Marc Chagall, to those in the USA such as Miriam Schapiro and Eva Hesse, Barnett Newman and Archie Rand, as well as contemporary Israeli artists, Jewish Art provides a comprehensive and lucid account of a complex subject. It is ideal for all general readers interested in the subject, and invaluable to students of Jewish art and history, as well as scholars in the field.This lavishly illustrated volume, featuring numerous works published for the first time, offers a coherent discussion of the vexed question of what constitutes Jewish art today.

Samantha Baskind (Author) Samantha Baskind is Associate Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio. Her other books include Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists (2007) and Raphael Soyer and the Search for Modern Jewish Art (2004).Larry Silver (Author) Larry Silver is the Farquhar Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in Dutch and Flemish paintings. He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including Transformation: Jews and Modernity (2001), Rubens, Velázquez, and the King of Spain (2014) and Rembrandt’s Faith (2009).