Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.)

N. Y.) Jewish Museum (New York

Ziva Amishai-Maisels

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.

Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890-1990

Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918 vividly documents the diverse ways that Jewish artists, intellectuals, and cultural impresarios participated in this burst of creativity and promoted the emergence of modernism in Berlin and on the international scene."--BOOK JACKET.

N. Y.) Jewish Museum (New York

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