My Grandparents, My Parents and I: Jewish Art and Culture - Hardcover

EDWARD VAN VOOLEN is curator of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. His previous books include Jewish Identity in Contemporary Architecture (Prestel).

Art historian van Voolen's incandescent illustrated history begins with an elegant definition of the essence of Judaism, and encompasses a resplendent survey of Jewish art. Jews have always been "deeply involved in the arts," and just as there has never been a monolithic form of Judaism, Jewish art has never been homogeneous or static. Moving forward in time, van Voolen offers extraordinary examples of synagogue art and architecture, paintings, and sculpture, covering well-known Jewish artists such as Modigliani and Chagall as well as Solomon Alexander Hart, the first Jew to become a member of London's Royal Academy; Reuven Rubin, a Romanian immigrant to Palestine; Frida Kahlo, whose Jewish heritage (the book's title and cover image are hers) isn't commonly noted; Man Ray; Barnett Newman; Grisha Bruskin; and Nan Goldin. From nineteenth-century paintings capturing the anguish of pogroms to Dani Karavan's profoundly moving site-specific environmental sculpture, Homage to Walter Benjamin, Jewish art addresses persecution and genocide, but as van Voolen's judicious overview asserts, Jewish artists primarily seek to sanctify life. Donna Seaman
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