[DOC] Social Concern and Left Politics in Jewish American Art: 1880-1940 (Judaic Traditions in Literature; Music; and Art) by Matthew Baigell at Arts-Photography

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. New Insights into the Political Art of AmericaBy Dr. Debra Jan BibelThe scholarly. well-documented academic book is chiefly about the political and propaganda art of Jewish artists rather than Jewish artists themselves and their role within the larger history of modern art. Indeed. most of the illustrations are Yiddish newspaper and magazine cartoons. The shift in outlook over the decades begins with positive patriotic immigrant issues in the 1880s. the great escape from anti-Semitic Europe and pogroms to the promise of equality and justice in America. The police were depicted as safeguards and protectors of rights. and art supported dignity and joy. By the 1920s and early 1930s the concern became economic as America was found not only to harbor anti-Semitism but was supporting harsh and dangerous working conditions. No longer were the images related solely to the Jewish community; they were provocatively anti-rich. anti-big business tycoons. anti-police. and pro-worker and pro-union. The African-American worker was included as colleague in the struggle. All the images depicted men. even though women were in sweat-shops and mills. Compared to their population at large. Jews dominated the artists who contributed to the protest and were also among the first leaders in the union movement. The Jewish community already had its own charity and service organizations. The underlying thesis is that Jewish ethics and values. a sense of the larger society. of justice and rights of minorities and underdogs. were instilled through Talmudic principles and the history of experiences in Europe. The rise of Socialism and of Marxist-Communism in Russia attracted artists who saw greedy. unregulated. discompassionate Capitalism an enemy of the masses. Later. with the rise of fascism and the disappointment with Russian hypocrisy. global concerns were depicted. Anti-war images entered the popular literature.A conflict in the stylistic form of art became a topic of critics and artists themselves: Holger Cahill. the Works Projects Administration (WPA) chief. said that supported art is "an attempt to bridge the gap between the American artist and the American public." But the approaches of institutions and artists sometimes differed. Social-realism could depict the worker in positive light as smiling. noble and heroic. as with Soviet (later Maoist) art. or. darkly. downtrodden and forlorn. Compositions could be. as in many of the public works murals. realistic in detail or could introduce abstract. generalized principles of modern art. The lithograph of the books cover. for instance. shows an endless line of nondescript men seemingly Chagall-like and nightmarishly floating above the street and buildings. While clearly in support of the worker. some leftists thought such art bourgeois.The book closes the discussion at 1940. with the world at war and Hitler and Stalin in a nonaggression pact. Within a year. left-wing art would temporarily become irrelevant to national survival. Later. some of these Jewish artists would return to Jewish or abstract spiritual and commemorative themes. as Ben Shahn and Mark Rothko and my own uncle. one of the featured artists in the book. The appendix includes very brief artist biographies and a glossary. It is not complete. however. Bernard Zakheim. for instance. a left-wing WPA muralist of San Franciscos Coit Tower and University of California. is not mentioned. The narrow focus and thick scholarship make the book more appropriate to the art historian. Judaic scholar. and political scientist than the general reader. That caveat said. I did find the book an important contribution and should help fill gaps in Depression Era and immigrant studies.