Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the visual arts, including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, and crafts.
Visual Art
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Fast Forward Emerson professor who ‘sarcastically’ gave Nazi salute in class takes leave of absence
A professor at Emerson College in Boston is being investigated after performing a Nazi salute in class last semester. The accused professor, Brian McNeil, told The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s student newspaper, that his behavior was meant to parody Nazis, but also acknowledged how his actions could have been “perceived the wrong way.” The incident, which…
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Culture The most powerful Jewish artist you’ve never heard of
A massive exhibit at one of Miami’s leading art museums is reclaiming a place in art history for an iconoclastic but little-known Jewish artist and Holocaust survivor. . The show, “My Name Is Maryan”, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami, explores the legacy of the Polish-born artist Maryan, who survived an…
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Yiddish World Yiddish Folklore Inspires American Artist Debra Olin
Read this article in Yiddish. As seen in a new exhibit at the Museum at Eldridge Street, artist Debra Olin has created large format monoprint collages that explore Jewish folkloric superstitions and religious practices, particularly those of women in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Olin based her art on the information she gleaned from an…
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Culture Tobi Kahn marks a new Jewish ritual — with a new piece of art
What does tikkun olam look like? On Yom HaTzedek, a new holiday that falls on Pesach Sheni, it looks like a box. For Tobi Kahn, the renowned painter and sculptor, that box looks like a city awash in deep blue, its interior reflecting the heavens, its slot like a mailbox to God. On a Wednesday…
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Culture On an artist’s journey of discovery, embracing mythology while rejecting the bible
At an exhibit titled “Personal Mythology” by an Israeli artist, you’d expect to see some biblical references — perhaps an apple tree, or King David with his harp. But there aren’t any; Tarot cards, witches and alchemical creatures populate Ranei Mazor’s sculptures and dioramas. “I have a very good history and record with the stories…
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Culture Nazis stole thousands of pieces of art — but that was only the beginning of the story
In most art exhibits, each piece has a plaque that identifies the title, artist, subject, and style. At The Jewish Museum’s newest exhibit, however, each plaque has two descriptions. The first is a standard explanation of the piece. The second explains who owned the painting before the Nazis stole it — and how it was…
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Culture Jews have survived a lot — and this artist is preparing us for the apocalypse
The last 16 months have felt like an apocalypse movie at many points — a global pandemic, the attack on the Capitol, a massive drought and widespread forest fires in the Western U.S., even those murder hornets that briefly made headlines. Yet to artist and architect Daniel Toretsky, the catastrophes felt familiar; Jews have faced…
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Culture Meet the husband and wife behind Williamsburg’s first Hasidic art gallery
Just off Flushing Avenue, a bustling thoroughfare in Hasidic Williamsburg, there’s a basement full of art. Chiaroscuro portraits of eminent rabbis. Scenes of Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Modernist sculptures of men kissing their tefillin, tender floral still lifes, a collection of old violins splatter-painted in exuberant colors. Housed in a lower-level ballroom in the Condor Hotel,…
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Fast Forward Trump to ‘defend the rights of Christians,’ announces new faith initiative led by controversial televangelist
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Music Critics say Kendrick Lamar was too loud and hard to understand — they said the same thing about Bob Dylan in Newport
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Music In lawsuit, Drake accuses Kendrick Lamar of picking on ‘Jewish heritage’
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Opinion Yes, Trump’s Gaza plan is outrageous. It could also be just what the Middle East needs
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Fast Forward A grant to study Hebrew is ‘woke DEI,’ Ted Cruz says
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Fast Forward Macklemore’s latest anti-Israel music video, ‘F—ed up,’ places the West Bank and Holocaust side-by-side
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Opinion Why does Trump’s Gaza plan sound so familiar? Because the Nazis tried it first
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News Burned trees, traumatized animals: Nature is revealing the unseen effects of Israel’s wars
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