Jewish Identity in Modern Art History (review)

Catherine M. Soussloff, (ed.), Jewish Identity in Modern Art History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999). 239 pages.

Jewish Identity in Modern Art History is far from a celebration of Jewish art and artists. Many essays cast doubt on art's power, joy, and beauty. A few writers seem troubled by its very existence.

Much about the anthology is revealed through its somber design. There are only thirty-six illustrations, none in color, augmenting six of ten essays. Some illustrations are drab reproductions of texts. For casual consumers of art who enjoy museums, travel, and coffee-table books, this study will be puzzling. Even for scholars specializing in modern Jewish culture, it will have very limited appeal.

Soussloff, a professor of art history and "visual culture" at the University of California, Santa Cruz, deserves credit for her determination. Her book grew out of her dissatisfaction with the College Art Association (CAA), the influential organization of professors, curators, and graduate students. Her panel on Jewish art, presented in 1996, was the first in eighty-five annual meetings. This situation seemed particularly deplorable because the CAA has numerous Jewish members--many at the highest levels. Soussloff's major concern was understanding why Jewish art historians have been so reserved or circumspect about studying their own past. How does one account for such modesty or neglect?

Unfortunately, Soussloff seems less concerned about a larger agenda. Is Jewish art adequately represented in American art museums (or Jewish museums)? Are Jews underrepresented in the museum profession? Does the history of art, as taught to undergraduates throughout North America, lack a proper (or any) Jewish focus? Should courses on Jewish art be offered in graduate departments where art historians are trained? Indeed, should Jewish artists have more (or less) to say about themselves? If so, does the Jewish public bear any responsibility?

Soussloff's book might have been more accurately entitled Jewish Identity in Art Historical Thought. Though a relatively young discipline, art history has dealt fundamentally with premodern cultures. But Soussloff views art historical thought primarily through a postmodern lens. Narrowly and artificially focused, she searches for Jewish identity within the dictates of ethnicity, feminism, queer studies, and diaspora studies. Such a pivotal figure as Gertrude Stein is overlooked, however. Consequently Soussloff's concept of Jewish identity seems faint and undernourished. Her notion of art, dwelling on "visual artifacts" and "cultural objects," also seems desiccated and disembodied.

Following her introduction, Soussloff's book is divided into three sections: "Theories, Laws, and Disciplines," "Artists and Collectors," and "Art Historians and Critics." Some basic structure is necessary, but the essays do not fall neatly into these groups. For example, Donald Kuspit's essay in the third section could also fit in the first. If Aby Warburg was primarily a bibliophile and secondarily a writer, then Charlotte Schoell-Glass's essay could fit in the second section rather than the third.

Some essays barely fit any of Soussloff's categories. For example, Lisa Saltzman's essay on post-Holocaust imagery, with its emphasis on Anselm Kieffer, a significant non-Jewish artist, belongs in another anthology. Lisa Bloom's essay on ethnic and feminist strategies of the 1970s, featuring Judy Chicago and Eleanor Antin, is even less suitable. No claim can yet be made for their art historical importance.

Larry Silver's essay on the Polish painter Maurycy Gottlieb (1856-79), one of the first Jews to launch a professional art career, is excellent. Without oversimplification or condescension, Silver, a former CAA president, offers his scholarship to a broad readership. Drawing on two generations of Jewish research and establishing a vivid art historical framework, he circumvents fads and fashions. Silver does not quite explain, however, why Gottlieb should be considered modern or important beyond a Jewish realm.

Silver, a former president of the CAA, obviously believes that studies of Jewish art can be written by many scholars--as Jews have interpreted Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist art. But in his recent...