JUDAIC ART AND CULTURE
INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE ISRAELI AND HEBRAIC ART
HOW TO DEFINE JEWISH ART? WHO IS AND WHO IS NOT A JEWISH ARTIST?
Defining what Jewish art is and who is a Jewish artist is more problematic and subjective than defining art itself. Jewish artists from all eras and various nations contributed ad infinitum to various and multiple schools, styles, genres and aspects of classical, abstract and modern art. In many instances, no Judaic or Hebraic artistic creativity was ever associated with the nature, the theme and message of their work. Add to the fact that, many non Jewish artists from all centuries mirrored and depicted memorable events from the history of Israel, the Bible and modern Jewish conflicts around the globe. For instance, the famous “Jewish Polish Village Series” which depicted destroyed wooden synagogues in Eastern Europe was done by a non-Jewish artist Frank Stella, who paid respect and homage to a bygone Jewish world. Thus, the enigmatic questions arise:
“Does the theme of a painting reflect the religious identity of an artist?”, “Does the Jewish birth of an artist, ipso facto defines the Jewishness of his or her art?”, and “How do we define the artwork of Palestinian artists, Muslims and Arab Christian artists who explored Jewish and biblical themes ?”, “ Is it the subject, the theme, the message of a painting which adheres, confers and determines the Jewish ethnicity, or simply, the birth certificate of an artist?” Hard to tell!
THE SABBATH REST by Samuel Hirszenberg (1866-1908). Oil on canvas 1894.
In The Sabbath Rest, the entire family including an ill, elderly relative spend the Sabbath afternoon in one room. The view from the window is of an unwelcoming industrial landscape, but presumably threats of violence also kept them all inside. The family have eaten their Shabbat lunch, and there is still a bowl of fruit and some nuts on the table. Notice also the Shabbat candlesticks still on the table from the night before. These are the only objects of any value in the home, reflecting how important Shabbat was to this family. There are family photographs on the wall. The lamp is typical of Shabbat lamps found in Jewish homes since medieval times. These were in the form of a star, and were lit at the same time as the candles to welcome in Shabbat. The star shaped part of the lamp contained wicks and oil and the basin below caught any dripping fuel. It was important that the lamps were fashioned to burn for 24 hours, because it is forbidden to do any sort of work, including the lighting of lamps during Shabbat. Hirszenberg was born in Lodz, Poland and studied in Munich, Crakow, and Paris. He exhibited regularly in Paris before moving to Jerusalem in 1907. He taught at the newly established Bezalel School of Art and Craft there until his death in 1908. Hirszenberg was well-known for his large paintings showing the grim realities of the plight of the poverty-stricken Jews of his native Poland. The greatest problems were the eruptions of violence against the Jews, known as pogroms, which caused many hundreds of thousands of Jews to flee from Eastern Europe to the West.
JEWISH ART IS UNIVERSAL. ARAB-PALESTINIAN ART IS A PROPAGANDA.
Per contra, if we look at a contemporary painting done by a Palestinian artist from Israel or Palestine, we categorically and almost unquestionably sense, feel, observe and realize that this very painting is Arab-Palestinian production, because of its propaganda nature.
THE MESSAGE IS THE KEY
Moritz Oppenheim has been considered as the first Jewish pioneer-painter. Unquestionably, his artwork has been described as the direct expression of Jewish culture, traditions, faith and socio-political struggles. As a fervent Jew, Oppenheim in his paintings, echoed, preserved and “loudly” reflected the Jewish collective identity, struggles and horrifying anti-Semite experiences German Jews encountered in Germany and Eastern Europe. The Jewish art identity was revealed in the message, the artist conveyed on linens. The message was the key. When Moritz Oppenheim portrayed the illustrious 18th century Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn with a zealous Swiss Lutheran clergyman, Johann Caspar Lavater, Oppenheim was intentionally conveying the message of and explaining the implications of an experience that illustrated a primordial juncture in Mendelssohn's quest for a Judaic philosophical and an intellectual path. Mendelssohn realized and understood that Lavater's renunciation of his Judaism was another illustrative example of polemics against Jews. Unfortunately, the pioneering Jewish spirit of Oppenheim and his struggles to preserve the Jewish identity through art are rarely mentioned in the history books.
PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE JEWISH EXPERIENCES
In many instances and passages of life, personal or collective socio-ethnic experiences play major roles in shaping and defining the ethnicity of art and the religious background of an artist. It is not always the faith of the artist that categorizes and identifies the religious nature, race, ethnic origin and nationality of an artist or his/her work. Unforgettable personal experiences, pain, sorrow, fear, incertitude, despair, hunger, poverty, homelessness and hopelessness caused by racial and ethnic biases, social injustice and persecution redefine and frame the landscape, colors, structure, composition, vibes and “psyche” of a piece of art. “After the Pogrom” painted by Maurycy Minkowski retraces, illustrates and captures the fear, panic and hysterical trauma felt by Jews in Eastern Europe. It was a humanistic tableau of the decadence of the human race, the social prejudices, the despair and frightening hopelessness of the Jewish refugees; a personal and a collective experience of the suffering and persecuted Jewish people. And because Maurycy Minkowski was physically challenged (He could not talk or hear), his personal “physical “ condition and related experiences added an extra sense of isolation, fear, separation, despair so closely attributed to and associated with prosecuted and persecuted Eastern Jews . “Czarny Sztandar” (The Black Banner), a masterpiece by Samuel Hirszenberg is another example of a personal emotional and religious Jewish experience. This fabulous painting depicts the funeral scene of a Rabbinic leader. Through the dark and somber colors of melancholic Hebraic lamentations, the painting has become an authentic Jewish mourning scene. Ironically enough, several totally different Jewish experiences, divergent and convergent in collective Jewish attitude and social reactions, and determination (Of a new generation of brave Jewish nationalists) to fight back, instead of fleeing, mourning or hiding, deeply influenced Jewish artists who were not accustomed to paint Jewish uprisings, revolts and public protests. “Birth of Jewish Resistance” painted by Lazar Krestin, after the “Kishinev Pogrom” in 1903, is an enlightening and a very convincing a propos example. Once again, the artist transmits a strong message based upon current Jewish efforts and perpetual fight to secure stability, security and new direction in the daily life of struggling Jews.
The Rabbi in this drawing is standing in synagogue. We can tell this because behind him we can see the Ner Tamid, or everlasting light which burns in every synagogue, as a reminder of God's omnipresence. He is holding a palm leaf, which is known as a lulav, and is one of four species (Arbah Minim) that are shaken together on Succot. All four of these species are found in Israel. The others are the Myrtle (Hadas), the Willow (Aravah) and the Etrog, which is a citrus fruit. Branches from the three trees are bound together and held together with the etrog. They are then shaken in all directions to show that God is all around. It is not known why the Rabbi in this drawing is only holding the lulav, and what has become of the other three species. However, this is probably once more due to the fact that Solomon was not an observant Jew and had probably not witnessed the Succot celebrations since childhood.
PREDOMINANT AND DRASTIC JEWISH CHANGES
In Europe, new social and intellectual changes in the Jewish communities prompted and influenced Jewish artists to illustrate and paint the drastic intellectual, artistic, philosophical and cultural changes among cultured and avant-garde Jews. Max Lieberman, the pioneer of German Expressionism echoed Jewish intellectualism. However, Lieberman did not completely abandoned the Jewish traditional nostalgia. His famous masterpiece “The Artist’s Wife and Granddaughter”, painted in 1926, portrayed the warmth and sweetness of a German-Jewish family fading away amid tumultuous and frightening European political events. Around 1935, all his artwork was removed from the German museums by the Nazi party and its hoodlums.
THE BEGINNING OF A JEWISH ART MOVEMENT
Jewish migration and radical changes in Jewish communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries forced or invited leading Jewish artists in France, Russia, Eastern Europe and in the United States to focus on recapturing the spirit, essence and soul of Judaic history and culture. In that context, Jewish artists felt the need for creating an authentic Jewish art; a pure Hebraic art. And Boris Schatz took the lead. He went to Jerusalem to establish the “Bezalel School”. Around 1920, many artists from various parts of Europe joined Schatz in his efforts to create an authentic Jewish art and to protect and promote “Zionism Idealism” through paintings, illustrations, drawings, sketches and sculpture reflecting bursting Jewish optimism. However, instead of creating a “Jewish Art”, they produced a “Hebraic Art”, later to be known as the “Hebrew Art”. This new breed of Jewish artists, ardently and diligently, began to paint scenes from the daily life of Jewish families in Palestine,” paysages” and “stills” from small Jewish towns, and the world they lived in.
Photo: Grandfather and grandson by Lithuanian-Russian artist German Gold.
The
beginning of the Jewish or Hebraic art movement was characterized by artistic
naivety, esthetic transparency and utmost candid human inner feelings. It was
not a great art. But, humanistic enough, truthful enough and colorful enough to
be considered an artistic creativity which honestly reflected the passages to
times, simplicity and complications of typical Jewish surroundings and daily
life. In that sense, the truthfulness and candid beauty in the artwork of the
early Jewish artists in Palestine became an artistic-social chronicle and a
humanistic journal of the life and times of early Jewish immigrants in the
promised land. “The Small Town”, a painting done by Nahum Gutman
reflects this reality. It depicted the early sceneries of Tel Aviv as a newly
established Jewish town. The painting was submerged with lights, lyrical colors
and candor, yet it lacked artistry and refined esthetical touch. The early
Jewish or Israeli art was childish, naïve, rudimentary but imbibed with human
truthfulness, honest provincial beauty and transparent emotions. Regrettably,
this lovely primitive realism Jewish-Israeli art did not survive. A new wave of
more talented Jewish artists who studied in Paris, France on the hands of
remarkable French artists like Cezanne, completely and totally changed
the style and compositional structure of the early Israeli art. They brought new
techniques, new definition, innovative structure, multidimensional themes,
vibrant colors, more elaborate landscapes dimensions and a challenging
esthetical equilibrium between models, subjects and artists’ personal
interpretation and artistic visions. One of the leading figures of those
innovative and talented artists was Yosef Zaritsky who brought to the
cosmos of humanistic art, a series of delightful watercolor landscapes.
Photo: TISHA B'AV by Maurice Minkowski (1881-1930).Watercolor 1927.
Tisha B'Av marks the anniversary of the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonian general Nebuchanezzar in 586 BCE and of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Roman General Titus in 70 CE. It was also the date on which the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a pagan city was begun by the Emperor Hadrian in 136 CE, on which the Jews were expelled from England in 1290 during the reign of Edward I and finally on which Ferdinand and Isabella began the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 during which 300,000 Jews had to leave their homes in Spain. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Tisha B'Av has become a symbol of all the persecutions and misfortunes that the Jewish people have undergone throughout their history. The book of Lamentations is read during the evening service and it is traditional for the worshippers to sit on the same low stools used during the mourning period. Other melancholy passages are also studied such as the Book of Job, and the lights are usually kept dim.
Photo: Hallel, by Moritz Oppenheim.
THE JEWISH RENAISSANCE: THE REBIRTH OF A JEWISH AESTHETIC IDENTITY
Between 1914 and the mid-1920s, a Jewish cultural and artistic renaissance elan saw the light in Russia. A new effervescent intellectual Jewish movement nourished with a national Judaic nationalism, Hebraic artist impulse, the strong belief in the rebirth of an authentic Jewish art, and the determination or at least the hope to create an Israeli-Jewish-Judaic-Hebraic state. Avalanches of Jewish philosophers, writers, thinkers, ethicists, painters, musicians, composers, intellectuals and activists were united in one way or another to redefine a Jewish identity. And the most logical and suitable medium at that time in history was evidently ART. The creation of a Jewish aesthetic has become a necessity and a Jewish priority. The driving force and leading figures of that national-artistic-intellectual movement were: Joseph Tchaikov, Boris Aronson, Issachar Ryback, El Lissitzky, Nathan Altman and later on Marc Chagall upon his return to his native Vitebsk during the first world war. The Jewish renaissance movement was stimulated and empowered by traditional and innovative Jewish artists living in the Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Lithuania and various parts of Russia. Among the most prominent artists , we recognize Shlomo Zainwil Rapoport, who during his 1912-1914 expedition to Kiev, Odessa, Volhynia and Podolia studied the Jewish communities life in the “Pale of the Settlement”; a region to which Jewish families were restricted starting in 1772 at the time of the first partition of the lands of Poland. And consequently, more than 600,000 Jews came under the Russian rudimentary rule.
By 1897 there were five million Jews living in the “Pale”. Artists of the Jewish renaissance movement began to work on rescuing and preserving remnants of the old Jewish historical, cultural and spiritual heritage, fearing that regional political events, politico-ecological developments, drastic shifting in European politics, and the profound changes in social and ethical standards due to the new waves and influences of “Modernism” or “The Modernization Movement” in many European regions, could and would alter, dissipate or annihilate Jewish values, ethics, traditions, folklore and culture. Already, at the beginning of the first world war, much of the Jewish traditions, folklore, culture and heritage were sought or considered to be on the verge of extinction. In many Eastern European countries, where poor Jewish families settled, observing Jewish traditions and preserving folk heritage were already disappearing. Thanks to the exploratory expeditions, search, visits and trips of Issachar Ryback and El Lissitzky, Jewish historians and curators were able to collect manuscripts and records describing the exquisite and the fine woodwork and sculpture motifs in wooden temples and synagogues in Eastern Europe. In addition to their passion for traditional religious Jewish art, Jewish avant-garde and innovative artists were extremely involved with abstract art, modern art, Cubism and surrealism. They illustrated books, decorated manuscripts and designed stage sets with a Cubist-Abstract flair and cache.
HABIMAH: THE FIRST HEBREW THEATER AND JEWISH IMAGERY
“Dybbuk”, written by An-Sky and which was based on tales, short stories, naïve anecdotes, folklore was the first performed and produced play by the Jewish theater in Russia. It cemented the reputation of Habimah, as the first legitimate Hebrew theater company.
Years later, Habimah moved to Tel Aviv and was immortalized by a painting done by Leonid Pasternak. In that painting, An-Sky is depicted as a scholar reading passages from his play. Among the most famous artworks of Pasternak, are his illustrations of numerous Yiddish books, including but not limited to drawings and sketches for children's books, a signature-style to which his well-known “1919 Had Gadya” for the “Passover Haggadah” pertains to. Many efforts were deployed by Jewish artists and intellectuals to revive the Jewish traditions, heritage and folklore. Unfortunately, as aspiration and hopes for creating a permanent global Jewish culture dissipated, due to interference, sponsorship, control and restrictions by local governments, El Lissitzky’s dream faded away. He turned to avant-garde “Constructivist Structural Compositions”, for which, years later, he became famous for. Around 1921, El Lissitzky completed his last artwork “Shifs Karta” (Boat Ticket), incorporating Jewish vision and imagery, after he had finished the illustration of “Six Stories” a book by Ilva Ehrenburg. Many Jewish artists began to flee the Jewish ghetto, searching for artistic freedom and esthetic liberation. They found refuge in Paris, France, where they were freely introduced to Cubists, Surrealists, Fauvists, Impressionists, Dadaism innovators and abstract art pioneers of the era.
In Europe and in the United States, many Jewish immigrant artists made their mark on the world of art. Chana Orloff, born in the Ukraine, immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1905. In 1910, she traveled to Paris to further her studies and exhibit her art. By the 1920s, Orloff gained an international reputation for her portraiture work. Born in Lithuania, Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, arrived to Paris in 1909. He changed his name to Jacques Lipchitz. In 1913, he met Picasso and short after, he commenced to exhibit his Cubist sculptures. Influenced by metaphoric forms and mythological themes, Lipchitz began to distance himself from Cubism to adopt geo-organic style. Following the Nazi’s occupation of Paris, and around 1941, he left Paris to settle in New York. Another Jewish giant was Max Weber, who was born in Bialystok. Like his predecessors, he moved to New York when he was 10 year old. Other immigrant Jewish established and aspiring artists joined the “Educational Alliance School” located in New York’s Lower East Side. The school was already known for its outstanding German Jewish art teachers and instructors. During the Depression’s years, an avalanche of Jewish artists in New York contributed to a multidimensional artistic movement in the United States. The multiple and varied ethnic backgrounds of the immigrant Jewish artists and intellectuals added an ultra-dimension to American modern art. Such Jewish pioneers were William Gropper, Raphael Sover and Ben Shahn who painted the Roosevelt Mural.
REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST AND VICTIMS
Since the end of the second world war, many Jewish artists devoted their lives to find pragmatic ways and means to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust’s victims. A vast literature and an abundance of artwork by eminent Jewish thinkers, authors, writers and painters depicted and chronicled the bloody and barbarian mass murders and killing of Jews on the hands of the Nazis. “The Little Angels” written by Moshe Gershuni served as a remembrance tool. Mordecai Ardon’s “Missa Dura” witnessed the sufferings of the victims, the catastrophic events, the destruction of Jewish properties and assets, the slaughters of innocent Jews and the Kristallnacht. The Holocaust of George Segal became a national memorial and a universal bleeding symbol of human suffering, injustice, barbarism and atrocities. Segal used living beings to be directly “casted” in plaster and sculpted human images and forms of the corpses of the victims via photographs taken from real life, from concentration camps and “cells of torture” shortly after the Allied liberated the Nazi’s concentration camps in Europe. One of the most pulverizing and frightening features was the lone figure standing by a barbed wire fence, inspired and accurately based on Margaret Bourke-White’s original photograph.
JEWISH LIFE AND JEWISH ART IN THE POST WORLD WAR II: ISRAELI ART AS A DISTINCT ENTITY AND A WORLD-CLASS ART!
Jewish art, culture, literary expression and Jewish urban life richly metamorphosed, developed and adopted many changes and variants in the post second world war era. Jews began collectively and individually, autonomously and fervently reach out to world’s Jewish communities, to explore new aesthetic definitions, innovative art techniques and approaches, to define and examine old and new political ideologies and dogma about their existence, human rights, the role and importance of Judaic art in their lives, families, milieus, societies and newly born country. An abundance of magnificent and varied Jewish art styles, genres and schools saw the light and began to fertilize and enrich the landscape of world art. The once upon a time a primitive Hebraic-Jewish art of Eastern Europe evolved into a world-class art. Jewish artists began to gain world recognition and an international fame. And while adding an ultra-dimension to universal art, Israeli artists who redefined “JEWISH ENTITY IN ART” preserved the cache and essence of an ethnic Judaic art. Anna Ticho’s sceneries and landscape of Jerusalem, Itzhak Danziger’s “The Lord Is My Shepherd”, a most inspiring abstract-intellectual vision of Negev sheep, the “First Seder in Jerusalem” by Reuven Rubin, “Prometheus” by Menashe Kadishman, “Shimshon” by Gabi Klasner, “Pardes” by Samuel Bak, “My Old Home” by Evgeny Abesgauz, the kinetic expression and stunning optic art of Yaacov Agam, the masterpieces of Leonard Baskin, Ben Shahn, Larry River and the incomparable Adolph Gotlieb, the “Windows Series” of Chagall, the unforgettable painting “Street in Weissewald” by Irving Petlin, the “Shrine Series” by Tobi Kahn, “The Jewish School” of R. B. Kitaj and the “Matzo Box Series” of Adam Rolston ascertain the superior art quality and genius of the Jewish and Israeli artists.