Israel's Interest in' Abstract Art and Artists
come again, and again, but
you," said the physician.
Abstract art and Zionism:
"want me to come again and
what have the two in com-
again."
mon? In Russia, they are
"The difference between
in the same boat. An exhibit
the physician and the artist,"
of abstract art was invaded
said Lieberman, "is that the
in Moscow by bulldozers and
physician buries his mistakes,
brcken up. More recently,
while the mistakes of the
perhaps as a reaction to
painter hang on the wall."
world opinion, there was an
The physician should have
indication of a moderating of
had his photograph taken.
the Russian opposition and
The camera can get pure
recently also Soviet Foreign
realism better than the paint-
Minister Andrei Gromyko has
er—and much quicker.
voiced some statements which
may portend a change of
Probably no painting is not
mind to some degree about
somewhat abstract. In every
painting, however realistic,
Israel. -
The Soviet opposes abstract
there is something of the
painter as well as the thing
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
or person painted.
Friday, October 25, 1974-25
The lest of a good painting
is not whether it is abstract
Celebrate an Old-Fashioned
or representational.
Family Channuhah
A . teacher of painting once
said that the test of a good
painting is that it makes you
feel good.
Beautiful, handcrafted
A great artist of the last
California redwood drei-
century was the lady painter,
dels. Hebrew letters burned
Rosa ifonheur. She lived in
into wood. 21 inches tall.
Paris and specialized in paint-
Playing instructions and
ing animals. Her painting,
story- of dreidel included.
the Horse Fair, hangs among
PERFECT
the other classics at the Met-
CHANNUKAH GIFT
ropolitan Museum. Rosa Boi-
for children
heur was Jewish. The name
and grandchildren
Bonheur is a translation of
mazel tov.
$2 each (3, for $5),
If you look at a painting
prepaid (postage incl.)
and it gives you a little thrill
and you say or want to say
mazel tov, it is good. No
THE DREIDEL
matter
what other critics may
, FACTORY®
say.
2445 Prince Street
Two of our most important
Berkeley, Ca. 94705
abstract artists of recent
days in America have been
Jews--, Rothko and Gottlieb.
Some years back, as a
young reporter on the old
Washington Herald, I was
sent to interview Joseph Pen-
nel, who enjoyed at the time
some reputation for his etch-
ings. For some unaccounta-
ble reason, he could not help
venting his anti-Semitism,
telling me Jews didn't figure
in painting. I hadn't said they
had. I knew very little about
painting then. I might have
PRESENTS
mentioned the German Lieb-
erman, or the Italian Pissaro
—who was half Jewish, and
not only a greater artist than
Pennel but a much greater
human being. Pisarro was a
strong influence on Cezanne,
probably the most important
figure in modern painting.
Cezanne speaks of Pisarro
with the tenderness one
The Age of Brass
speaks of his father. .I might
have also mentioned Soutine,
Lecturer: Dr. Stanley F. Chyet
one of the classics of today,
or going a little further back,
Associate Director, American —Jewish Archives/Professor of American Jewish
the Dutch Jew, Josef Israels.
History of - the Hebrew Union College/author of "Lopez of Newport", "Lives and
numerous
of
History"/contributor
Voices". "Essays in American Jewish
His father wanted him to be
articles to many publications/member of Central Conference of American
a rabbi, but he became a
Rabbis, American Historical Society, Jewish Publication Society.
bookkeeper. When he began
INTRODUCTION BY Irving Katz
to draw pictures on his book-
•
Board Member Jewish Historical Society of America
'
keeping records, his father
Executive Director Temple Beth El
gave in to his ambition to be
•
a painter.
Chagall, who is semi-ab-
The Holocaust and American Jewry
stract, is one of the contem-
porary greats. Interestingly
Lecturer: Dr. Selig Adler
enough, at the beginning of
Copen Professor of American History of the State University of New York.
the Bolshevik revolution,
of Buffalo/held visiting professorships at Cornell University and the University
Chagall was made commis-
of Rochester/outhor of numerous major articles which received wide dissemi-
sar of painting in his area.
nation in historical and popular journals/author of The Isolationist Impulse"
and "The Uncertain Giant: American Foreign Policy Between the Wors"/
The Bolsheviks only later
listed in current edition of Who's Who in America.
discovered that abs tract
INTRODUCTION BY Dr. Joseph Gutmann
painting was not kosher.
Professor of Art and Art History at Wayne State University
When Hitler came to power,
Chagall's paintings were in-
eluded lay the Nazis in an
Bernard Panush, Chairman
exhibition of what they called
Harry Laker, President
Rabbi Milton Arm, Moderator
"degenerate *art." What bet-
ter reason could there be for
ADMISSION FREE
abstract painting than the
21 100 W. 12 Mile Road ( between Lahser and Evergreen) knowledge that the Nazis
Southfield, Michigan
were against it?
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
DREIDELS
art on the grounds of "So-
cialist realism." It wants peo-
ple, dogs, cats, houses, ma-
chinery painted. Everything
real. In the same way, the
many Arabs with their lands
and their oil are more real
than Israel. It would be dif-
ferent if the Jews had twenty
nations like the Arabs instead
of one.
Moses was against repre-
sentational art. He forbade
the making of representa-
tional images. What were. his
reasons? Perhaps the ex-
planation is that he lived in
a period when things were
worshiped. Even on Mt. Sinai,
when 'Moses communed with
the Most High, the Israelites
could not resist the impulse
to fashion the image of a calf
to worship.
Perhaps we are still in the
same groove — worshiping
things. An eminent Yiddish
writer said the reason the
Israelites made a golden calf
was that they didn't have
enough gold to make a cow.
The highest forces, Moses
knew, are abstract. Truth,
love, electricity, freedom, are
abstract. Soviet Russia is in
special need of the last.
To say one approves ab-
stract art is not to deny the
good in the representational
variety. The picture of a
house by a lake can be beau-
tiful.
The noted German Jewish
painter, Max Lieberman,
painting the portrait of a
physician, who protested the
many sittings, was told, "A
patient comes to me, I exam-
ine him and give him a pre-
scription. I don't ask him to
ADULT EDUCATION
.COMMITTEE
Congregation Beth Achim
PRELUDE TO THE
AMERICAN BICENTENNIAL:
Tue s day
W. d OE: 6 - 8
be ' 2 9
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OE: (
Fu es dc
FROM SEIXAS TO KISSINGER
BETH YENNAH SCHOOLS
60th ANNIVERSARY DINNER
f
V
•
LOBO HALL
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1974
Special Guest Speaker
THE HONORABLE JUSTICE ARTHUR J. GOLDBERG
Former Associate Justice of the United States
Supreme Court, Ambassador to the United
Nations and Former Secretary of Labor
GENERAL CHAIRMAN: IRWIN I. COHN
DINNER .CHAIRMAN: I. WILLIAM SHERR
GOLDEN TORAH AWARD RECIPIENT: HILLEI, L. ABRAMS
SPONSORS
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Max Biber
A. Howard Bloch
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.
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Sidney Fischer
Nathan I. Goldin
Rubin Grevnin
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David B. Holtzman
Arnold Joseff
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Joseph Nusbaum.
Irving I. Palman
Julius Rotenberg
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I. William Sherr
Max Stollman
Phillip Stollman
HONORARY CHAIRMEN
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COMMITTEE
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