Attitudes of interwar Lithuanian art critics towards Jewish art
ENThe article hopes to present a brief outline of Jewish artistic life in interwar Lithuania and analyses the attitudes of art critics towards Jewish art. The following questions are raised: Did interwar Lithuanian art critics regard Jewish art as a specific phenomenon, standing apart from rest of Lithuanian artistic life? Did art critics distinguish the differences in themes and plastic expression between Lithuanian and Jewish art? What role by Jewish artists was played in shaping the tastes of interwar Lithuanian artists and critics, as well as the public? The article encompasses a period of about twenty years; from 1918, the establishment of Republic of Lithuania, to World War II. Though brief from the historical point of view, this period was notable for a multitude of significant events, which influenced the subsequent development of Lithuanian art and Jewish art in Lithuania. The reconstruction of Jewish artistic life and art critics’ attitudes towards Jewish art is based on archive materials and various press publications, such as newspapers, magazines and exhibitions’ catalogues on art published in Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish in interwar Lithuania.
