Visual Art Books of Note caust, and the founding of the State of Israel, as well as the dispersal of Jewish artists around the country and the rise of feminism and spiritualism in the late-20th century.
ten by Joan Acocella. Discussing artists including Stefan Zweig, Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Sontag, Primo Levi, and Philip Roth, Acocella explores the making of art and the courage, perseverance, and, sometimes, dumb luck that it requires.
THE FUTURE OF ART IN A DIGITAL AGE: FROM HELLENISTIC TO HEBRAIC CONSCIOUSNESS Mel Alexenberg Intellect, 2006. $59.95 ISBN: 978-1-84150-136-9
his text offers a prophetic vision of art in a digital future. Expanding upon the artistic prospects made possible by digital technology, it explores the directions in art that have arisen between the planes of science, technological development, and cultural expression.
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THE SUBJECT IN ART: PORTRAITURE AND THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN Catherine M. Soussloff Duke University Press, 2006. $79.95 ISBN:0-8223-3670-7
hallenging prevailing theories regarding the birth of the subject, Catherine M. Soussloff argues that the modern subject did not emerge from psychoanalysis or existential philosophy. Rather, it was first visualised in the theory and practice of portraiture in early 20th century Vienna.
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JEWISH ART IN AMERICA: AN INTRODUCTION Matthew Baigell Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. $79.00 ISBN: 0-7425-4640-3
n this first book-length study of Jewish art in America, Matthew Baigell explores works from the early settlers of America to the present. Baigell concentrates on Jewish subject matter employed by artists as they illustrated aspects of their religious and ethnic heritage and as they responded to major events over the decades, including the Great Migration, the Great Depression, the Holo-
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UNWANTED BEAUTY: AESTHETIC PLEASURE IN HOLOCAUST REPRESENTATION Brett Ashley Kaplan University of Illinois Press, 2006. $35.00 ISBN: 978-0-25203093-3
ortrayals of the Holocaust in literature, paintings, and architecture have aroused many ethical debates. How can we admire, much less enjoy, art that deals with such a horrific event? Does finding beauty in the Holocaust amount to a betrayal of its victims? Brett Ashley Kaplan’s Unwanted Beauty meets these difficult questions head on, analyzing a wide range of Holocaust representations in order to argue that a more careful understanding of aesthetics and its relation to history can best address the anxieties raised by Holocaust art.
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TWENTY-EIGHT ARTISTS AND TWO SAINTS: ESSAYS Joan Acocella Pantheon Books, 2007. $30.00 ISBN: 978-0-375-42416-4
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wenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints is a compilation of thirty-one essays writ-
Summer 5767/2007