Local Art Between Wars, 1967-1982
Until the 1970s, mainstream Israeii art dealt with a broad artistic and personal spectrum but, for the most part, ignored political issues. Even artists who portrayed cultural or Jewish content in their works were considered anachronistic by the artistic establishment of the time.
In the 1960s American artistic influences began to reach Israel, especially abstract expressionism, pop art, and later, even the art pauvre of conceptual art. In addition to bringing new artistic forms, these influences also introduced a direct engagement with political and social issues. Events of The Six Day War and The Yom Kippur War intensified these influences and led to a variety of politically charged artistic expressions which became the trademark of an entire generation of younger artists. Under the influence of American conceptual art, there even developed among Israeli artists a tendency to emphasize the dimension of artistic creativity, that is, the "ars poetica" discourse, and how it is perceived by the viewer of art within society. In this spirit, artistic activity in Israel was often seen to be part of the country's social-political reality.
Read more about this topic: Israeli Art
Famous quotes containing the words local and/or art:
“There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist’s relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist’s concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art is in no sense cathartic; it is merely a form of emotional masturbation.... It is the rarest thing to find a player who has not had his character affected for the worse by the practice of his profession. Nobody can make a habit of self-exhibition, nobody can exploit his personality for the sake of exercising a kind of hypnotic power over others, and remain untouched by the process.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)