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Jewish Art in America: An Introduction.

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Jewish Art in America: An Introduction. By Matthew Baigell. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. xxiv + 253 pp.

Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists. By Samantha Baskind. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. xvii + 323 pp.

Two new volumes attempt to provide a comprehensive, critical picture of Jewish artists and art in America from the eighteenth century to the present; each addresses the concept of Jewish identity from a broad point of view. Matthew Baigell is emeritus professor of art history at Rutgers University. His Jewish Art in America: An Introduction builds on his earlier books Jewish-American Artists and the Holocaust (1997) and American Artists: Jewish Images (2006) as well as on his numerous articles and essays on early twentieth-century East Coast Jewish American artists. His current book--intended as a survey of Jewish art in America--is more a study of Jewish cultural and social history than of art history. Yet, he provides an excellent background for understanding the various contexts in which American Jews, including artists, have operated. Samantha Baskind, assistant professor of art history at Cleveland University, is a scholar of American art of the first half of the twentieth century, with a focus on Raphael Soyer. Her Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists provides...

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