Women Artists and Art Criticism in the Jewish Press in Germany

• In Event: German-Jewish Women in Journalism and the Visual Arts, 1918–1938

Abstract

Many artists contributed to the Jewish Renaissance in Germany at a time when new value was placed on Jewish art. The Jewish press regularly featured news about and works by such artists as Max Liebermann, Lesser Ury, E.M. Lilien, Ludwig Meidner, Joseph Budko, Jakob Steinhardt, and Eugen Spiro. Yet only a few of the Jewish women artists who were active in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s received considerable attention in Jewish circles and periodicals. Several of these artists have been rediscovered and are becoming better known today (Julie Wolfthorn, Rahel Szalit, Rosy Lilienfeld), as are artists who primarily worked in mainstream circles. A close look back at the Jewish press offers insight into which other Jewish women artists might warrant further research and study.
This paper explores how critics and art historians writing for the Jewish press in Germany helped to construct and shape a canon of Jewish artists. To be sure, this canon is overwhelmingly male, but there were nonetheless women artists who received mention for their participation in various exhibitions and other Jewish projects. Of particular interest are instances when female art critics and art historians promoted women artists. Through an examination of articles and reviews in German and Yiddish periodicals including ‘Ost und West’, ‘Israelitisches Familienblatt’, ‘Jüdische Rundschau’, ‘Blätter des Jüdischen Frauenbundes’, ‘Milgroym’, and ‘Yidishe ilustrirte tsaytung’, this paper points to other women artists who were active and well-known in their day.

Author

• Kerry Wallach, Gettysburg College