Social Concern and Left Politics in Jewish American Art 1880-1940

The author examines the social concern and left politics in Jewish American art from the Great Migration from Eastern Europe in the 1880s to the beginning of World War II. He analyzes political cartoons and prints in left-wing Yiddish and English-language newspapers and magazines to illustrate how these artists commented on current events using biblical and other Jewish references, including artists like William Gropper, Mark Rothko, Leon Israel, and Louis Ribak. He addresses religious and political images that show social concern and correlations between Judaism and Americanism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; ideas by Karl Marx, John Ruskin, and others regarding the place and function of art in society, and articles in the Jewish press that reflected them; the attraction of communism and the Communist-controlled press policies toward art, as well as anti-Semitism in Europe and the US; the relevance of these policies for artists and illustrators; and the disenchantment with communism, as well as Jewish art, art criticism, and the politics of social concern after 1940. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Matthew Baigell is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers. He received his Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania in 1965. Recent publications include Jewish Artists in New York: The Holocaust Years and American Artists, Jewish Images. He is also the coeditor (with Milly Heyd) of Complex Identities: Jewish Consciousness and Modern Art .