Have tried unsuccessfully for weeks to find grant money to continue my studies in the Jewish community and have determined that there is no support system out there what-so-ever.

Just a guess, but that is probably why there are so few Judaic fine artists.

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks

Ramon, you’re right; there was a need for liturgical objects. Plus there probably was a demand for jewellery as a means of investment that could easily be taken along in case of an expulsion. (Seamen would turn their pay into gold earrings as a form of solid currency.) Later it supposedly just was more or less traditional. (A fifth- or sixth degree uncle of mine was considered the finest goldsmith and jeweller in Düsseldorf during the turn of the previous centuries and the times leading up to WW2. I’ve still got a ring he made.) I suppose family pictures were taken as soon as photography was available (hardly ever were they particularly artistic though), but, like many personal documents, many got lost during WW2 / the Holocaust. The oldest photographies of members of my family that I know of (i.e. that are still in family possession) are from about the middle / second half of the 19th century. An anecdotal by-note, my great-grandmother grew up in a frum neighbourhood; her mother wanted her photograph taken. She wanted it taken with her hair open as she was known for her gorgeous curls, but the photographer insisted she should cover her head. In the end, they compromised on a bun. The photograph’s still in my grandmother’s bedroom; I should have a copy of it made.

Bring it on; I’ll take all the affection I can get!

froylein, you should know by now that Middle can’t handle the truth, which explains his reaction to your portrait.

I could’ve summed that previous bloated comment above in a more succinct manner: In the shtetel, you always need a wedding band. Not so much a wedding photographer.

Middle, you’re right about Goodman vs. Armstrong. No contest. Shouldn’t be one. Not a fair comparison. Maybe Goodman vs. Harry James. Funny thing, when I was growing up the only jazz fans I knew were Jewish.

Back to the visual arts; we need to consider a few premises:
a) during the Middle Ages, the artwork that sold was mostly religious as in work-on-demand paid for by the Church or someone donating a piece of artwork to a church.
b) since Jews were not permitted to join guilds, they couldn’t be chisellers, hence sculptors (if you look at medieval sculptures, you’ll notice that the artist is hardly ever known; artists – as in specialized skilled craftsmen – considered themselves a divine tool; an attitude that only changed with the Renaissance).
c) Jews (Ashkenazi as well as Sefardi and Yemenite) have produced some fine gold- and silversmiths (the world’s biggest jeweller currently is Ch. Abramowicz from Stuttgart). It was not uncommon that reliquaries were crafted – and even designed – by Jews, but the Middle Ages aren’t too well documented in that field. Reliquaries provided a solid income though, but their history is quite another story. With diamond cutting emerging as a Jewish trade, jewellery design and craftsmanship became a Jewishly dominated terrain.
d) Guggenheim

Maybe we should categorize what Jewish art can be:
1) Jewishly themed art produced by a Jew;
2) non-Jewishly themed art produced by a Jew;
3) Jewishly themed art produced by a non-Jew (which then would also include purposedly anti-Semite works);
4) anything painted on a matzah.

BTW, I painted a portrait of Middle – using only my middlefinger at that. He didn’t like it.