Why Jewish Artists Continue To Be Inspired by The Bible

THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD
By Benjamin Ivry

Responding to Scripture: R.B. Kitaj was known to include Jewish content in his paintings.

ISRAEL---Art historian Samantha Baskind, author of, among others, “Raphael Soyer and the Search for Modern Jewish Art” and the Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists, now tackles thorny problems of identity and representation in her latest book. “Jewish Artists and the Bible in Twentieth-Century America” asks why several modern American Jewish artists were inspired by biblical themes when their goyish contemporaries dismissed such imagery as “outmoded.” Their use of such imagery could involve complex, multilayered metaphors, and even included humor, yet always expressed a highly serious inner essence. [link]