Fixing the World: Feminist Art and Jewish Identity

From the early 1970s to the present, Jewish women have been at the center of the feminist art world. The course deals with the intersecting issues of feminist art, women's art, and Jewish art. It illuminates the contribution of Jewish artists to the feminist art world and various Jewish societies over the past fifty years.

In this course, we will examine several Jewish artists and explore their work in the context of feminist and gender theories and recent research on art and Judaism; We will learn how to study works of art within the context of the social, cultural, and religious settings in which they were created. We will sharpen our understanding of the contribution art has made to exposing women's experiences, stories, and perspectives throughout the years who have been fascinated by Jewish history and the art world. Another emphasis will be on the variety of ways in which art affects changing and improving social reality.

Topics covered in the course:

Basic theories and concepts in feminism, gender studies, art, and Judaism.
The unique way in which feminist Jewish art contributes to the fields of art and the societies within which it is created; The life and works of important Jewish artists such as Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, and Mirel Lederman-Ukeles; Issues of feminism and gender in Holocaust-related art; Women's art that deals with the intersection between with the Jewish-ethnic body and gender; Social activism and institutional criticism in the world of feminist Jewish art; The gender contexts of immigration and nation-state issues as presented in the art of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia.