Risks and Rewards: The Upside and Downside of Artistic Conversions

• In Event: Of Divided Minds: Conversion Conflicts and Identity Challenges

Abstract

This paper explores conversion as a metaphor for abrupt stylistic change by artists marking a shift from early to later work and what it might mean regarding artists’ thoughts on contemporary culture and society. The metaphor comes from Harold Rosenberg’s essay, AMERICAN ACTION PAINTERS (1952), where he wrote that Modernism …IS, WITH THE MAJORITY OF PAINTERS, ESSENTIALLY A RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. IN ALMOST EVERY CASE, HOWEVER, THE CONVERSION HAS BEEN EXPERIENCED IN SECULAR TERMS. THE RESULT HAS BEEN THE CREATION OF PRIVATE MYTHS. For Rosenberg, conversion is a stylistic change and move toward secular culture. Rosenberg later argued in IS THERE A JEWISH ART? that TO BE ENGAGED WITH [MODERNISM] HAS LIBERATED THE JEW AS ARTIST BY ELIMINATING HIS NEED TO ASK … WHETHER A JEWISH ART EXISTS OR CAN EXIST. More recently, scholars have evaluated Rosenberg’s position in terms of his own desire to address assimilation within contemporary culture and politics.
Rosenberg’s characterization of sustained artistic change remains important as artists today continue to undergo an ARTISTIC CONVERSION. Some, however, have moved away from secularism toward religious themes. I argue that this phenomenon is a reverse kind of artistic conversion from what Rosenberg described, and can be compared to religious conversion. This paper will look at artists who appear to be doing the just this, converting to Jewish subject matter. Archie Rand and Meirle Laderman Ukeles, who already had significant reputations, now use Jewish themes. This paper is timely as a significant retrospect of Ukeles’ art just closed at the Queens Museum and Rand recently published his cycle of paintings, The 613. Their artistic conversion to Jewish motifs will be the main examples for this case study. My intention is to use their work to draw out new questions such as: What risks and rewards exist for the artist who turns to Jewish subject matter and how are they weighed against each other? And importantly, what are the limits of the artistic conversion metaphor? What does it adequately capture and where does it fall short?

Author

• Ben Schachter, Saint Vincent College