Finding their voice: Jewish women artists in the 19th and 20th centuries.

While Jewish women artists became active in the visual arts beginning in the mid-19th century, to date they have not been addressed as a group. This project presents a theoretical and historical overview of the work of six Jewish women artists---Rebecca Solomon, Charlotte Salomon, Helen Frankenthaler, Sonia Delaunay, Louise Nevelson, and Eva Hesse---examining their art in the context of their cultural heritage, Euro-American nationalities, social environments, life experiences, and contemporary art movements. Providing both representational and nonrepresentational artists---an important factor in Jewish aesthetics---this group includes both well-recognized artists and those whose work has only recently become known. For Delaunay, Frankenthaler, Nevelson, and Hesse, this analysis provides an understanding of their artwork in light of their Jewish heritage, as opposed to the Western cultural context in which they are most often viewed.To properly examine the lives and artwork of these artists requires a multi-faceted theoretical framework. Given the history of Jewish exile, which dispersed artists among Euro-American societies, cross-cultural perspectives and analyses provide a context in which to situate their artwork. Contemporary aesthetic theories and women's art scholarship reframe the visual arts, particularly in reference to Jewish women artists. Finally, new textual methods of interpretation contribute to a broader understanding than traditional art historical practice.Since Euro-American art scholars most usually confine themselves within Western culture and aesthetics, the introduction of Jewish aesthetic history and theory provides a more appropriate structure within which to examine the work of Jewish women artists.While this sample group is small, it represents a broad historical and geographical range and examines the various ways of creating visual art within that range. This study weaves together traditional art historical models with newer theories from textual art scholarship, as well as cross-cultural and Jewish cultural studies. This use of a multi-faceted theoretical framework seeks to provide a more complete understanding of the lives and artwork of Jewish women artists, and their place within art history.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2003.School code: 0119