The Arts

Latin American Jewish Arts: A Selection of Influential and Notable Artists of Jewish and Latin American Origin

The following is a curation of Latin American Jewish artists and their works, biographies, and critiques. The curated artists below are each unique in their styles, messages and themes, personalities, and relation to Jewish culture and faith. Each artist and their work serve as a snapshot of lived experience and shared history; the art tells their unique Jewish narrative. Of course, the number of pieces exhibited below is not extensive nor is it the best set of art to capture the character of each artist per se, but that is a rather subjective matter. The gallery presented below is by no means an extensive list but a jumping-off point from which one might be able to explore the lesser known community of Jewish artists in Latin America.

 

Before one can confidently explore Latin American Jewish art it seems appropriate that there exists a basic understanding of general Jewish art and the importance of Jewish art considering its long troubled history. Like the people that the art is created by, Jewish art is a story in dismissal, oppression, and exile. The origins of trouble in Jewish art, however, begin somewhat internally. Passages such as Exodus 20:4 state, 

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

A similarly themed passage in Deuteronomy 4:16-18 reads,

“16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.”

In both of the passages, there is a relatively explicit directive against the visual and representative arts. Depending on the time and place in history, the stringency to adhere to these Biblical laws was high among Jewish communities. It is because of a mixed history with the visual arts that the Jewsih people as a whole gained a reputation, or perhaps better, a stereotype, that they did not make or produce art. Such is obviously not the case, we must only look at Solomon’s Temple to understand that Jewish history is explicitly tied with artistic culture. Other examples of art include Jewish religious objects. Yet, even with a wide variety of creative and artistic creation, the Jewish people have still been discounted as a major culture of the arts. 

The Western appreciation and gradual acceptance of Jewish art as a field wouldn’t even begin to take its modern form until the late 19th century with some of the first exhibitions of exclusively Jewish art. Among many reasons for the late blooming of Jewish arts a major factor can be attributed to the diasporic nature of Jewish people. Between Ashkanazi, Sephardic, and other Jewish communities, the ability for a single national art to form was nearly impossible. In the 19th century, a period dominated by the nation-state and national art, the constant minority status of Jews meant that Jewish art lacked a coherent sense of identity and the legitimacy afforded the art of nation-states. 

It wouldn’t be until the 20th century where we would see the Jewish art historian emerge and, with them, a greater sense of what Jewish art was and ought to be. One of the most prominent of the early Jewish art historians was Rachel Wischnitzer. Wischnitzer would work to expand the definition of Jewish art beyond the biblical and nationalistic naratives that were and still are often cited. For Wischnitzer, Jewish art was far more than what was laid out in the Torah. For Wischnitzer, Jewish art was anything that was historic or cultural in nature as it related to the Jewish people, 

“I have always regarded Jewish art as part of the general creative process modeled inexorably by the times and the artist’s personality…” 

In short, Wischnitzer, in helping to create the unique identity of Jewish art, was positing the radical claim that Jewish art was no different from any other style or culture of art; i.e. Jewish art is merely that which can be found in any context in which the individual Jew creates art. It is not strictly limited by faith or some overarching national identity, nor is it limited to any certain style or aesthetic, Jewish art can be expressed by anyone, from any time, and from any one of the plethora of Jewish cultures and subcultures. 

Understanding the context of Jewish art, even if just barely, is foundational to understand, analyze, and criticize Latin American Jewish art. Furthermore, understanding that Jewish art is not bound to any specific style or context but as Wischnitzer writes, that which is expressive to the unique circumstance of the artist at a specific time, is essential when looking at the wide range of artists and art found in Latin America.

Throughout the 19th century, Jews throughout Eastern Europe (largely Ukraine) and Russia were actively prosecuted. Anti-Jewish riots (pogroms) plagued Jewish neighborhoods. Often times with support from the government, these riots would lead to the raping and massacring of thousands of Jews. Many cities forced the segregation of Jewish people into ghettos.

Countries such as Russia even instituted migratory bans on Jewish people in an effort to prevent them from fleeing the country. This is a similar strategy to that of the Spanish Crown during the Spanish Inquisition throughout the 15th-19th centuries, wherein Jewish people and their descendants were banned from traveling out of the country or to the New World.

Maurycy Minkowski: 

The story of recovering lost and damaged Jewish arts from the AMIA Bombing

A well acclaimed artist in Europe, the Polish-Jew Minkowski would become a focal point for Argentinian Jews for over half a decade under multiple unique circumstances. Born in 1881, Minkowski would have some lived success as an artist in his native Europe where he lived all his life. In 1930, Minkowski and his family planned to embark on a tour of the Americas where Minkowski hoped to expand his audience. His first destination, Buenos Aires, however, would also be his last. Unbeknownst to Minkowski, two unseeable forces were working to upend his plans. First, the global markets had just begun the freefall that would become the Great Depression. Second, Minkowski arrived in Buenos Aires right on the eve of the coup to overthrow President Hipolito Yrigoyen. But, before such events could take place Minkowski had an exhibit to put on. In Buenos Aires, Minkowski’s exhibit was supported by the Polish Embassy and publications in Yiddish and Spanish-Jewish were circulated in the Jewish communities throughout the city in anticipation of the artist’s show. However, to the the global economic depression, Minkowski found himself without the funds to continue his American tour and, subsequently, settled in the city to do new works and gather inspiration from the local Agricultural Colonies. Not long after his settlement into the city, a coup-de-tate would occur in Argentina and Minkowski would die in Buenos Aires during the tumult.

In both life and death, Minkowski served as a focal point for the Jewish community in Argentina in the 1930’s. Minkowski became a call-to-arms by different leaders in the Jewish community to promote the ownership and curation of Jewish art. Despite the economy continuously spiraling out of control, patronage of Jewish art was continued to be seen as an important issue on the eve of the dictatorship. In particular, it seems that the many prominent figures in the Argentine Jewish community were criticizing their own, saying that the wealthy had not done enough to appreciate the prominent Polish-Jewish artist. For some Argentine Jews, they felt that their own community was not well viewed well among the global Jewish communities, in particular those in Europe. 

Over a decade after the artist’s death, the AMIA opened in Buenos Aires. In the AMIA, a significant collection of Minkowski’s works were amassed in the society’s collection. That said, the events of the time (most notably the Holocaust) meant that Minkowski’s work still remained in relative obscuritiy. It wouldn’t be until 1994, after the AMIA Bombing, that Minkowski’s works were once again in the spotlight, some 60 years later. The location of the Minkowski collection was near the back of the AMIA and, subsequently, suffered little damage from the bombing. Because of this, Minkowski’s art became a symbol of survivorship and catapulted the failed artist back into the spotlight one more time.

Mira Schendel:

Lost Identities

Schendel was born in Switzerland in 1919 but moved just three years later to Milan with her mother. Her mother was absent throughout her childhood and Mira would find herself frequenting strict Catholic convent schools off and on. In 1939, Schendel was forced to flee Mussolini’s Italy and move to Sarajevo. In 1949, after the war, Schendel and her husband would move to Brazil, but it wouldn’t be until 1953 that she would move to Sao Paulo and begin  gaining greater prominence in the art world. 

According to her daughter, Schendel felt she was always a refugee / emigree; that she had no home. Schendel was a Catholic raised, Jewish immigrant to Post-War Latin America; in one sense she was one of many but in another she was a wholly unique character. And her life experiences would shape her art and character in Brazil. Through her works, we see internal conflict of identity and belonging that Schendel faced all her life.

Droguihna, for example, is a sculptural piece made by Schendel in 1966. Droguinha, meaning “Little Nothings” in Portuguese, is a knotted work of two Japanese rice papers. The complex intertwining of fibers forms a single amorphous form in which the two strands are inseparable from each other. Like a tangled fishing net, knots and contorted fibers that twist in tension create forms that take on unique personality. Themes that are often used to describe the Droguihna work by Schendel include language, identity, confusion, ephemerality, and communication of meaning., Once we understand the artist we see the themes of “Little Nothings,” once described by Schendel as her most self-significant work, as a reflection of her own life up until then. The tumult and turmoil of a life without firm identity shows itself best in the Droguihna series.

Objecto Graficos (Graphic Objects) (1968)

Droguinha (Little Nothing) (1966)

Lasar Segall:

Depicting the Downtrodden

Segall, born in Vilnius, Lithuania, moved to Berlin at 15 to study art; in 1912 he had his first major exhibit in Brazil but only moved to the country in 1923. Segall’s family was Russian-Jewish and several of his earlier works capture this heritage such as Vilnius and I (1910), The Old Talmudist (1911), and After the Pogrom (1912). Lasar Segall is considered a Second Generation Impressionist, a school that is credited as originating from Wassily Kandinsky. But his work spanned beyond impressionism to also include Modernism and Expressionism. In fact, Segall is credited with introducing Expressionism to the Brazilian art community. Segall wrote in 1919, “Everyone must be inspired only to comprehend the essential from within and to express it in a personally necessary form.” This quote highlights Segall’s belief that art’s primary function was to express and manifest internal emotions. From this mantra we come to understand how Jewish themes became a core part of Segall’s work. 

Regarding Brazilian art, Segall did a series of sketches and prints of the Mangue district in Sao Paulo. 

During the 30’s and 40’s Segall shifts his art from Brazilian subjects toward the situation of the Jew communities in Europe. Segall takes a particular emphasis on the emigration and movements of Jews during the period of upheaval. Works such as Emigrant Ship show Segall’s attempts to highlight the plight of Jews in a visceral, visual call-to-arms.

Brazilian Landscape (1925)

Room with Poor Family (N/A)

Emigrant Ship (1939-41)

Gertrud “Gego” Goldschmidt:

Global Trend Setter

Gertrud “Gego” Goldschmidt, born 1912, was an Venzuelan Abstract artist. Gego was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, and would graduate from the University of Stuttgart with a degree in engineering and architecture in 1938. Just one year later in 1939, amid growing hostility toward Jews in Germany and the outbreak of war looming in Europe, Gego would move to Venezuela. It was in Venezuela where Gego would create a name for herself. With her architectural background, Gego would find herself quickly at home with the growing Modernist movement in Venezuela. Gego and her contemporary Venezuelan artists would make waves in abstraction and modernist art. 

While she worked in both two and three dimensions, Gego’s three dimensional art is her most well known and acclaimed. Gego had a particular affinity for line and point artwork which was viewed as revolutionary in the emerging field of Constructivism. Works such as Esfera (Sphere) are composed of many thin steel wires connected at their ends to form a geometric spherical form. Many act critics have described the tension between members as representative of the artist’s intention to convey one’s own inner tension. 

While Gego was aware of her Venezuelan contemporaries, there are questions of whether or not the artist was part of a larger Latin American Modernist dialogue. Rather, many of the most prominent modern Latin American artists at the time were more influenced by European art movements rather than anything that was internally grown. The conclusion might be, then, that in the modern / post-modern era, nationality and geography did not play as much of a role in the development of art as did the general global artistic trends. While Gego was certainly a major Venezuelan artist, the influence and praise of the artist was certainly global. The German-born, Venezuelan artist, then, is a case of global trends in Jewish and Latin American art. 

Esfera (Sphere) (1976)

Untitled (from the Reticulareas series) (1970)

Untitled (1987)

Creature 87-11 (1987)

Arnold Belkin: 

Political Activism Through Murals

 

​A Mexican-Canadian artist, Belkin was born in 1930 in Canada. At the age of 14 Belkin discovered the works of great Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera and his future mentor, David Alfaro Siqueiros. Interestingly, Belkin spent most of his active years working out of New York city, however. While Belkin worked with a variety of mediums, some of his more famous works are in the style of Mexican Muralism. While Mexican Muralism certainly has a dominant style and thematic trends, it is not the rigid monolith that many think it to be. Cubist, Modernist, and other art schools can be found present in the Muralist works of Belkin and others, however, more important were the often overt or explicit political themes that were portrayed in the mural. 

For Belkin, in particular, his art was used to decry oppression and atrocity. Works such as Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Against Domestic Colonialism highlighted crimes committed against Jews and Native Americans and are clearly inspired and built upon the artist’s own heritage. Belkin was a self-described “neohumanist” saying about art, 

"It is not a simple denunciation of everyday crimes; it is a grand denunciation of crimes that man commits against himself, by means of artistic language that can transcend time. We have to represent a new man, since we are in a stage of transition and want to address present and future generations, not those that have already died." 

It was this exact sentiment toward political art that motivated Belkin towards Muralism. The mural, in Belkin’s eyes, was a public form of art; it could not be owned in the same way a painting could. In many ways, Belkin might be better seen as an activist than an artist; an observer and critic of modern society. And, although his work only occasionally addressed Jewish issues, Belkin still stands as a pillar of activism through art in the Latin American Jewish community. 

Against Domestic Colonialism (1972)

We Are All Guilty (1961)

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1959)

Franz Krajcberg:

The Environmentalist

Frans Krajcberg is a Polish -Brazilain artist known for his environmental activism and art. Born in 1921 in Poland, Krajcberg would fight for the Polish army in WW2. After Poland’s capitulation in the war, Krajcberg would take refuge in the Soviet Union. It was there, in the USSR and post-war East Germany, that he studied art. 

While a significant portion of his life was spent in Europe facing and enduring the War, Krajcberg would say that he was reborn in Brazil. And it was in Brazil that Krajcberg would find his life mission: environmentalism and activism. It was, in fact, Lasar Segall, who bought one of Krajcberg’s early works in Brazil who suggested that Krajcberg move to the state of Parana for a job opening. Krajcberg would soon leave his job and engage more with the forest. Krajcberg considered nature to be a greater source of creativity than humans and so it outraged and devastated Krajcberg to see the deforestation and slash-and-burn that was taking place in Brazil. Krajcberg’s art was often in defense of nature and themes of wilderness, purity, and spirituality permeated his work. Krajcberg was known to use photography of devastated forests and sculptures made of wood from trees to make his art and to call attention to deforestation.

Bibliography

  1. Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
  2. Ancient and Modern Art. Accessed March 2, 2020. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/art.
  3. Sherman, Claire Richter. “Rachel Wischnitzer: Pioneer Scholar of Jewish Art.” Woman’s Art Journal 1, no. 2 (1980): 42-46. Accessed March 3, 2020. doi:10.2307/1358084.
  4. Gutmann, Joseph. “Introduction: Rachel Wischnitzer.” Artibus Et Historiae 9, no. 17 (1988): 11-12. Accessed March 3, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1483312.

  5. Ucl. “Deaf Polish Jewish Artist, Maurycy Minkowski (1881-1930).” UCL Ear Institute Action on Hearing Loss Libraries Deaf Polish Jewish Artist Maurycy Minkowski 18811930 Comments. Accessed March 4, 2020. https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/library-rnid/2016/06/24/deaf-polish-jewish-artist-maurycy-minkowski-1888-1930/.

  6. Baker, Zachary M. “Art Patronage and Philistinism in Argentina: Maurycy Minkowski in Buenos Aires, 1930.” Shofar 19, no. 3 (2001): 107-19. Accessed February 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/42943278.

  7. Barnett, Laura. “Mira Schendel: the Refugee from Nazi Europe Who Settled in São Paulo.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, September 13, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/13/mira-schendel-tate-modern-profile.

  8. “Mira Schendel.” Artists – Mira Schendel – Hauser & Wirth. Accessed March 1, 2020. https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2836-mira-schendel.

  9. Barnett, Laura. “Mira Schendel: the Refugee from Nazi Europe Who Settled in São Paulo.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, September 13, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/13/mira-schendel-tate-modern-profile.
  10. Borowitz, Maggie. “Anything or Nothing: Mira Schendel’s Droguinhas.” AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes, November 17, 2019. 
  11. “MoMA PRESENTS THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE MUSEUM EXHIBITION TO EXPLORE THE WORK OF LEÓN FERRARI AND MIRA SCHENDEL.” Department of Communications, Museum of Modern Art. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_387177.pdf

  12. “Lasar Segall: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.moma.org/artists/5317.

  13. “Segall, Lasar – Oxford Reference.” Segall, Lasar – Oxford Reference, December 30, 2019. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191792229.001.0001/acref-9780191792229-e-2457?rskey=lUibBG&result=2.
  14. Dietrich, Dorothea. On Paper 2, no. 5 (1998): 42-44. Accessed February 23, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24555196.

  15.  “Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt): MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed March 7, 2020. https://www.moma.org/artists/2107.

  16. Prendeville, Brendan. “SCULPTING WITH AIR.” Ambit, no. 220 (2015): 46-53. Accessed February 23, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/44345364.
  17.  Rexer, Lyle. “THE GEGO EFFECT.” Art on Paper 11, no. 5 (2007): 29-30. Accessed February 23, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24556310.
  18. “Arnold Belkin.” 6 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.artsy.net/artist/arnold-belkin.
  19. “Arnold Belkin.” Smithsonian American Art Museum. Accessed March 4, 2020. https://americanart.si.edu/artist/arnold-belkin-320.

  20. Gayel, Marybel. “Arnold Belkin: a neohumanist.” Voices of Mexico, (March 1993): 77-80. Accessed February 23, 2020.http://ru.micisan.unam.mx:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/17296/VOM-0022-0077.pdf?sequence=1

  21. McNee, Malcolm K. “Frans Krajcberg and Bené Fonteles.” SpringerLink. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, January 1, 1970. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137386151_5.
  22. Brooke, Elizabeth Heilman. “Using Art as a Sword to Defend Brazil’s Forests.” The New York Times. The New York Times, October 17, 1989. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/17/arts/using-art-as-a-sword-to-defend-brazil-s-forests.html.