Minimalism as an expression of visual identity on the Sephardic tombstones at the Belgrade Jewish cemetery

Abstract

Sephardic tombstones at the Belgrade Jewish Cemetery provide a significant topic in studying the visual identity of the Jewish community in Serbia. Being symbols of the cultural history of a nation, they are also evidence of a style which became typical of the Sephardic Jews in the entire Balkans in the 18th and the 19th century. With their simplicity and minimalistic monumentality, they induced a certain contemplativeness in the observer, and their refined form inspired those who studied the funerary art to analyse their style which was created as a blend of 'traditions' of two nations. Here, we will try to connect this style of funerary art with the philosophical minimalism, which in case of the Jewish people occurred due to many historical and social circumstances. Not wishing to overrule the philosophical grounds on which this art school was born in the 1960s, the paper rather aims to recognize its first beginnings in the cult tombstone art, which in time gained on historical and religious value which the newly started art school excluded from its symbolism. If we place these types of tombstones into Einstein's relative time and space from which they emanate a different energy, then we can evoke the motto of the minimalistic art forms - The Less is More - where a deliberate absence of objectivity speaks louder than the objects themselves.