The museum preserves more than 25,000 objects that reveal much about daily life, beliefs, customs, worship, human yearnings, and artistic achievement from biblical to contemporary times. They reflect Jewish life in virtually every corner of the globe as well as the museum's commitment to exploring American Jewish life in the context of American society as a whole.
This captivating biography reveals the previously untold love story of Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather. Both were photographic artists at the center of the bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles during the 1910s and 1920s, yet Weston would become a major Modernist photographer while Mather, who Weston ultimately expunged from his journals, would fall into obscurity. The book reveals how they and their entourage sought out the limelight as the Hollywood film industry came of age. Based on ten years of research and illustrated with extraordinary images, some never published, this history has a captivating range of characters, including Charlie Chaplin, Imogen Cunningham, Max Eastman, Emma Goldman, Tina Modotti, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Carl Sandburg. The lively text brings to life the ambiance of this exciting time in Los Angeles history as well as its darker side. Artful Lives exceeds any previously published account of this key period in Weston's development and reveals Mather's important contribution to it, making it an essential reference in Weston studies.
"The past quarter century has witnessed the emergence of a scholarly appreciation of American art in California. Yet assessments of the early modern (pre-1950) have been haphazard. Now in one bold volume, these scholars have remedied that deficiency. Thanks to the rich essays of this wonderful book, the art history of California--and the nation!--is graced with further light."--Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California "The authors of these essays illuminate a diverse and compelling history, one in which what happened at the geographic edges sheds new light on the European points of original. A lively and valuable contribution, not just to regional history, but to the making and transmission of modernism."--Whitney Chadwick, Professor of Art History, San Francisco State University "A welcome and overdue evaluation of the distinctive history of modernism in California, these essays sensitively explore a cultural terrain at once familiar and strange, surveying memorable achievements from painting to photography to architecture and film. The authors provocatively suggest the centrality of 'edges'--wherever they are found--to the national tale, and demonstrate it through significant developments on our western margin. A must for any serious student of American art and culture."--Charles C. Eldredge, The University of Kansas "An engrossing examination of modernist practices in California before the Abstract Expressionists and beatniks came to town. It includes art scenes peopled by Mexican muralists, European artists in exile, third-generation Californians, idealist photographers, and immigrant artisans."--Wanda Corn, Professor of Art History, Stanford University "These fascinating essays do much more than fill a major gap in our understanding of American regionalism. Their scope is superb because of the inclusive range of their definition of 'art, ' the varied ethnicities of the artists discussed, and the distinctive impact of environment, light, and culture on California art. A dazzling treasure, as pleasing to the eye as it is to the mind."--Michael Kammen, Professor of History, Cornell University
Historian Hurewitz brings to life a vibrant and all-but-forgotten milieu of artists, leftists, and gay men and women whose story played out over the first half of the twentieth century and continues to shape the entire American landscape. In a hidden corner of Los Angeles, the personal first became the political, the nation's first enduring gay rights movement emerged, and the broad spectrum of what we now think of as identity politics was born. Portraying life over more than forty years in the hilly enclave of Edendale (now part of Silver Lake), Hurewitz considers the work of painters and printmakers, looks inside the Communist Party's intimate cultural scene, and examines the social world of gay men. He discovers why and how these communities, inspiring both one another and the city as a whole, transformed American notions of political identity with their ideas about self-expression, political engagement, and race relations.--From publisher description.
Intertwining history and art over five centuries, this detailed overview of Jewish culture and events focuses on how printed writings and artworks have reflected the perceptions of Jews by themselves and others. Filled with nearly 400 illustrations of woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithographs, serigraphs and other visual works, it details the representation of Jews and Jewish life chronologically while giving individual attention to the regions and countries in which Jews have lived in significant numbers. From editions of the Haggadah to portraits to anti-Semitic cartoons, diaries to newspapers to novels, it analyzes a vast array of works that both molded and revealed Jewish popular opinion.
