Jewish tradition and modern art

Art critic Jed Perl, as one of Skidmore’s Jacob Perlow Lecturers, will discuss "Is There a Jewish Art?" on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium; the talk is free and open to the public.

Noting that Jewish tradition has been grappling with visual experience from the Old Testament to the 20th-century works of El Lissitzky, Marc Chagall, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman, Perl asks, What can we learn from this rich, multifaceted evolution? Is there a Jewish art, or a Jewish tradition in art? He will argue that there is. In examining paintings and architecture as well as ritual objects and even the arrangement of Sabbath dinner tables, he will address the relationship between ancient traditions and modern cultures and whether the Jewish tradition’s rejection of naturalistic representation may be said to foreshadow modernity's vision of the arts as a reshaping of reality.

Perl has written for many magazines, including New Criterion, Art and Antiques,New Republic, New York Review of Books, and the Skidmore-published Salmagundi. His own books include a forthcoming biography of sculptor Alexander Calder, the 2012 essay collection Magicians and Charlatans, and the 2005 New York Times Notable Book New Art City. Perl teaches at the New School for Social Research.

The Perlow series of talks and events is sponsored by Skidmore’s Special Programs Office.