This SIIS faculty syllabus provides foundational readings on the major trends that comprise the ‘master-narrative’ of Israeli art, with a critical analysis of this ‘canon’ and an examination of ‘other’ repressed ‘visual voices’ within Israeli society. The complexity, diversity and multifaceted nature of Israeli art will be stressed throughout our discussions.
Essential Reading
Artists of Israel, 1920-1980 With Essays by Moshe Barsch and Ygal Zalmona
The Jewish Museum, New York, 1981 (Exhibition Catalogue)
Gideon Ofrat. One Hundred Years of Art in Israel Introduction, Chapter 1: Jewish Folk Art, Chapter 2: Utopian Zionist Art, Chapter 3: The Modernist Tide, Chapter 4: Tel Aviv and the Parisian Jewish School.
Edwin Seroussi, “Music in Israel at Sixty: Processes and Experiences,” Hearing Israel: Music, Culture and History at 60 (2008).
A.B. Yehoshua, “The Dilemma at the Heart of Israeli Culture after Forty Years,” In the Shadow of Conflict: Israeli Art 1980-1989.
(Exhibition Catalogue) The Jewish Museum.
Recommended Reading (related to both sessions)
Ziva Amishai-Maisels, “Steinhardt’s Call for Peace,” Journal of Jewish Art vol.3/4 (1977) pp. 90-102
Avram Kampf. Jewish Experience in the Art of the Twentieth Century
(South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1984) pp. 144-175
Social Realism in the 50s/ Political Art in the 90s (Haifa Museum of Art, 1998) Zalmona, Ygal and Tamar Manor eds.
Kadima: To the East – Orientalism in the Arts in Israel [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1998)
Ella Shohat. Israeli Cinema (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989)
Yosefa Loshitzky. Identity Politics on the Israeli Screen (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001)
[Link directs to ebook for those with Brandeis account]
Motti Regev and Edwin Seroussi. Popular Music and National Culture in Israel Pages. 1-45. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004)[Link to ebook for those with Brandeis account]
Additional catalogues, books, articles and websites will be introduced throughout our discussions.
Websites
The Gabriel Sherover Information Center for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive