Jewish faith and heritage have significantly influenced the artistic themes and careers of several artists in theprovided sources, impacting their subjects, stylistic choices, and personal narratives.
Marc ChagallMarc Chagall was born into a poor Jewish family in Vitebsk, Belarus, then part of the RussianEmpire, as the eldest of nine children to a herring merchant. His early life and the Jewish community greatlyinformed his work. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, which granted Jews in the Russian Empire citizenship,Chagall supported its ideals and was appointed director of a Fine Arts School and Vitebsk Commissioner ofFine Arts, believing he could change mentalities through art. His 1920 work on the decoration of the Jewishtheatre in Moscow is considered a masterpiece of his youth. Chagall was invited to Palestine in 1931 to helpfound a Jewish Art Museum, and upon his return, created 40 gouache paintings to illustrate the Bible forengravings, which are now displayed at the Musée National Marc Chagall in France. His experiences with anti-Semite sentiment during a trip to Poland in 1935 led to him being branded a “degenerate artist” by the Nazis.During his exile in New York during World War II, his paintings were deeply marked by the war and anguish forthe fate of Jews, featuring Christ as a symbol of the martyrdom of Europe’s Jewish populations. Later in life, in1952, he married Valentina Brodsky, who was also a Russian Jew. In 1966, he donated the “Biblical Message”cycle to the French State, which inspired the creation of the museum in Nice.
Barnett NewmanAlthough many of his paintings were initially untitled and appear purely abstract, BarnettNewman often gave them names that hinted at specific subjects, frequently with a Jewish theme. Examplesinclude paintings from the early 1950s titled Adam and Eve, as well as Uriel (1954), and Abraham (1949), whichwas not only a biblical patriarch’s name but also his father’s name who died in 1947. His The Stations of theCross / Lema Sabachthani series (1958–1966) is subtitled “Why have you forsaken me”—the last words ofJesus on the cross, which Newman viewed as universally significant in his time and has been interpreted as amemorial to Holocaust victims. His largest work, Anna’s Light (1968), was named in memory of his mother whodied in 1965. Newman was born to Jewish parents in New York City in 1905.
Jack LevineJack Levine, the eighth child of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, grew up in Boston’s South End,observing a street life that included European immigrants and societal ills, which would later inform his work.His first formal artistic education was at the Jewish Welfare Center in Roxbury. The death of his father in 1939prompted a series of paintings of Jewish sages. Following the death of his wife in 1982, Levine developed anincreased interest in Hebraism, leading to a proliferation of paintings with themes from the Hebrew Bible. Aretrospective of his work was held at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1978.
Leonard BaskinLeonard Baskin’s Orthodox Jewish upbringing deeply inspired him, leading to many of hisworks referencing biblical parables, ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology, literature, and Jewish history. Hiswood engraving Tobias and the Angel (1958) depicts a scene from the Book of Tobit, a non-canonical Jewishtale, showcasing his use of visual symbolism and exploration of tensions between good and evil, suffering andhope through biblical narratives. His sculpture The Altar (1977) depicts the Binding of Isaac from Genesis 22, acentral scene in the Jewish canon, physically binding Isaac, Abraham, and an angel to symbolize psychologicalconflicts and themes of suffering and hope. Baskin later regretted taking 50 years to address the Holocaustdirectly, eventually creating a series of large woodblock prints in the 1990s with haunting, grotesque imageryand bitter, sarcastic texts from Jewish literature to confront the catastrophe and question God’s existence. In1994, he was commissioned to create a bronze Holocaust Memorial for Ann Arbor, Michigan, featuring awrithing figure symbolizing the victims, which he described as embodying both anger and mercy.
Judy ChicagoJudy Chicago’s growing interest in her Jewish heritage led her to undertake the HolocaustProject: From Darkness Into Light, which premiered in 1993. This project involved eight years of inquiry, travel,
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study, and artistic creation, merging her painting with Donald Woodman’s photography, and incorporatingstained glass and tapestry. The Holocaust Project continues to be exhibited, and selections from the projectare still shown. Her Jewish themes are explicitly listed in her biography’s gallery section.
Jacques LipchitzBorn Chaim Jacob Lipschitz into a Litvak family in Lithuania, Jacques Lipchitz eventuallybecame a French citizen. In his later years, Lipchitz became deeply involved in his Jewish faith, even referringto himself as a “religious Jew” in a 1970 interview. He started abstaining from work on Shabbat and put onTefillin daily at the urging of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. After his death, his TuscanVilla Bozio was donated to Chabad-Lubavitch in Italy and now hosts an annual Jewish summer camp. His bodywas flown to Jerusalem for burial, with a contingent including Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik.
Louise NevelsonLouise Nevelson was born Leah Berliawsky in 1899 in Pereiaslav, Russian Empire, to a Jewishfamily who had emigrated from the Russian Empire to America in the 1880s due to comfortable livingconditions, but also language differences and religious discrimination. Yiddish was spoken at home, and shepracticed English as her second language. In 1964, she created two works, Homage to 6,000,000 I andHomage to 6,000,000 II, as a tribute to victims of The Holocaust. In 1975, she designed the chapel of St.Peter’s Lutheran Church in Midtown Manhattan. When questioned about her role as a Jewish artist creatingChristian-themed art, Nevelson stated that her abstract work transcended religious barriers. The JewishMuseum curated a major exhibition of her work, “The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend,” in2007, which explored her complicated past, factious present, and anticipated future through her art.
Daniel LibeskindDaniel Libeskind is identified as a Jewish American architect of Polish-Jewish descent. Manyof his projects look at the deep cultural connections between memory and architecture. He was selected tooversee the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, which he titled “Memory Foundations,” a concept well-received for its presentation to the public in 2003. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum conductedan interview with Daniel Libeskind as part of their “Voices on Antisemitism” series. His work often involvesthemes of memory, evident in his projects.
Ibram LassawIbram Lassaw, a sculptor born in Alexandria, Egypt, to Jewish parents, immigrated to the UnitedStates in 1921. He created sculptures that represent religion, such as the Pillar of Fire for the façade of theJewish temple of the Congregation Beth El in Massachusetts. This pillar symbolizes the fire that led theIsraelites out of Egypt by night, as described in the Book of Exodus. Lassaw also designed and created abaldachin, a ceremonial canopy, for the House of Theology of the Franciscan Fathers in Ohio. Lassawmaintained that all art is religious and that his work never interfered with his religious beliefs.
Peter MaxPeter Max was born Peter Max Finkelstein in Berlin to German Jewish parents, Salla and JakobFinkelstein. His family fled Berlin in 1938, settling in Shanghai, China, for ten years. His time in Shanghaisignificantly influenced his later work, particularly his love for colors and the “calligraphic ballet” he observeddaily at the Buddhist temple across from his family’s villa. In 1948, the family moved to Haifa, Israel, where heattended school and studied art under a Viennese Expressionist, Professor Hünik.
Yaacov AgamYaacov Agam (born Yaacov Gibstein) was born in Mandate Palestine, and his father, YehoshuaGibstein, was a rabbi and a Kabbalist. In May 2014, Agam’s piece Faith – Visual Pray, which included significantsymbols of both Jewish and Christian faiths, was presented to Pope Francis. In 2016, he designed the lightingfor the World’s Largest Menorah in New York City. The Yaacov Agam Museum of Art (YAMA) opened in hishometown of Rishon LeZion, Israel, in 2018, and Agam noted it is “the only museum in the world that isdedicated to art in motion”.
Audrey FlackAudrey Flack, a photorealist painter and sculptor, was born in New York to immigrant, EasternEuropean Jewish, Yiddish-speaking parents. Her Jewish background influenced her artistic explorations,particularly her interest in “reclaiming the Madonna.” Flack noted that “Jews don’t have a compassionatemother” in their tradition, citing strong women like Rachel and Leah but less emphasis on mothering. Sheviewed the Virgin Mary’s anguish over her son’s death as embodying the grief she felt as a mother of anautistic child who never learned to speak, relating, “I’m sort of Mary. A woman of sorrow for my sorrow”. This
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personal connection led her to paint images of Mary multiple times, including Macarena of Miracles (1971),acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a 2022 self-portrait where she depicted herself in theposition of the Virgin Mary as a medieval icon.
Chaim GrossChaim Gross was born to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia and fled Europe as a teenager due toWorld War I violence and the disruption of his artistic training caused by anti-Semitic policies. He arrived inNew York City in 1921 and found a supportive environment among fellow immigrant artists at the EducationalAlliance Art School. Although some of his works referenced his horrific early experiences and the later murderof family members in the Holocaust, his artistic themes were largely joyful, depicting subjects like mothers atplay, acrobats, and dancers. The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, established in his historic home and studio,explores the many artists in its collection who were also immigrants to the U.S. in its “Artists and Immigrants”project. His daughter, Mimi Gross, is also a painter whose work is found in the collections of the JewishMuseum, New York.
Philip GustonPhilip Guston (born Goldstein) changed his name and, later in his career, returned to figurativepainting with a deliberately crude style. This “bad taste” in his painting, as noted by David Kaufmann, “signaledhis awareness of the subterranean connection between assimilation and high art” and “served a way ofmarking his work as Jewish”. Kaufmann suggests affinities between Guston’s pathos in facing a broken artistictradition and a broken faith in Jewish tradition.
Abraham WalkowitzAbraham Walkowitz was born in Tyumen, Siberia, to Jewish parents and emigrated withhis mother to the United States in his early childhood. In early adulthood, he sketched immigrants in NewYork’s Jewish ghetto, where he lived with his mother. His 1908 series of ink drawings, later published as Facesfrom the Ghetto, offered an unrefined glimpse into his Lower Manhattan neighborhood and conveyed a delicateempathy towards his Jewish sitters.
Alfred StieglitzAlfred Stieglitz, an American photographer and modern art promoter, was of German-Jewishdescent. While his Jewish heritage is noted, the sources do not explicitly detail how his faith or heritagedirectly influenced his artistic themes or his role as a promoter of modern art. His primary focus was onelevating photography as an art form and introducing avant-garde European artists to the U.S. through hisgalleries.
Diane ArbusDiane Nemerov (Arbus) grew up in New York City in a wealthy Jewish family who owned asuccessful fur company. She often tried to separate herself from her family and upbringing, which critics havespeculated was reflected in her work as an extension of personal suffering. She felt oppressed in hercommunity and akin to her subjects, often social outcasts, as she longed for experiences beyond her bourgeoisbackground. One of her notable photographs, A Jewish Giant at home with his parents, in the Bronx, N.Y.(1970), directly depicts a Jewish subject within their home environment. Her themes explored personal identityas socially constructed and found intrigue in unlikely subjects, which some critics linked to her own identityissues.
Roy LichtensteinRoy Lichtenstein was born into an upper-middle-class German-Jewish family in New YorkCity. While his Jewish background is noted, the sources state that he “didn’t speak often about being Jewish”and there was only one interview in the 1960s where he mentioned his maternal grandfather who went totemple and spoke Hebrew. One curator suggested his story was, in many ways, “an assimilation story”. In 1989,Lichtenstein created a giant two-panel mural specifically for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Adolph GottliebAdolph Gottlieb was born in New York City to Jewish parents. His “Pictographs” series (1941-1950) juxtaposed images in compartmentalized spaces, appearing similar to those of indigenous populations ofNorth America and the Ancient Near East. The sources don’t explicitly link these images or his later “Burst” and”Imaginary Landscape” series to his Jewish faith, but they do mention he designed a 1500 square-foot stainedglass façade for the Milton Steinberg Center in New York City in 1954 and a suite of 18 stained glass windowsfor the Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, indicating professional engagement with Jewish institutions.
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William Gropper William Gropper, known for fine-art painting and murals for the Department of the Interior, is not mentioned in the provided sources in relation to his Jewish faith or heritage.
Ilya BolotowskyIlya Bolotowsky, a Russian immigrant to New York, was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists. While his biography is detailed, the sources do not mention any specific influence of Jewish faith or heritage on his artistic themes or career.
Ernest L. Blumenschein, Frank Gehry, Irving Penn, Jim Dine, Jonathan Borofsky, Jules Olitski, LeeFriedlander, Richard Neutra, Weegee (Arthur Fellig): The provided sources do not contain information regarding how Jewish faith and heritage specifically influenced the artistic themes or careers of Ernest L.Blumenschein, Frank Gehry, Irving Penn, Jim Dine, Jonathan Borofsky, Jules Olitski, Lee Friedlander, Richard Neutra, or Weegee (Arthur Fellig). Their Jewish background may be mentioned, but no direct artistic or thematic influence is detailed in these excerpts. For example, Frank Gehry is a Canadian-born American architect who explored architecture due to its strong relationship with art, citing artists as his key “idols”.Weegee (Arthur Fellig) is identified as Jewish, but the sources focus on his photojournalism of crime and urban life rather than religious themes