Looking Jewish in Century 21

Abstract

Larry Silver examines renewed considerations of Jewish identity in the late 20th and into the 21st century as reflected in art. He writes that, “Thus to assess Jewish art in the seeming freedom of our own 21st century involves assessing Jewish culture’s current place within global multiculturalism, along with the vexed question of identity – even more complicated for Jews, since they have always been a largely endogamous ethnic group (complicated by intermarriage, an internal form of multiculturalism of real concern within the community), just as much as they share (loosely) a common religion.” Silver considers a range of visual artists and exhibitions that engage in diverse content. His essay centers some political reflection on Israel and Diaspora and shifting identities in both. He also revisits the important question of what Jewish art is and what makes art Jewish after all – with attention to individual artists’ own identities and the influences of both history and contemporary experiences and contexts. Silver examines gender insofar as he evaluates the work of male and female artists.