Jewish Identities in American Feminist Art: Ghosts of Ethnicity

Ghosts of Ethnicity explores the place of Jewishness in feminist art in the United States. It considers how the unspoken and unacknowledged issue of race, this "ghost" of the artists' Jewish ethnicity, has affected, even haunted, their art work. Lisa Bloom situates the art practices of feminist artists from the 1970s in relation to three key issues: * Why discussion of visual arts has remained silent on the topic of Jewish identities * Work by contemporary Jewish artists, critics and historians * The importance of Southern California and New York in the development of the US feminist art movement These themes are examined in depth through the artwork of Danielle Abrams, Eleanor Antin, Judy Chicago, Martha Rosler and Deborah Kass among many others. Featuring 66 illustrations, this study provides an important recentering and visualization of the previously opaque role of Jewish identities in feminist art history.