Friday, April 19th 2024   |

Art

Heirs of German-Jewish banker sue for restitution of one of van Gogh’s most famous paintings

By JORDYN HAIME

(JTA) — Heirs of a German-Jewish banker are suing a Japanese insurance company for the return of one of Vincent van Gogh’s famed “Sunflowers” paintings or at least $750 million in punitive damages.

In December, Julius H. Schoeps, Britt-Marie Enhoerning and Florence Von Kesselstatt, heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, filed a 98-page complaint with an Illinois federal court alleging that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was forced to sell the painting...

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, who transformed comics first as a muse and then as a feminist artist, dies at 74

By RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — Robert Crumb put the “x” in comix by setting to paper his basest sexual longings, including strong-legged Jewish women who were cowgirls and who went by the name Honeybunch Kaminski.

So when an actual strong-legged Jewish cowgirl named Aline Kominsky walked into his life, it was love at first sight, and never wavered.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, who died Wednesday at 74 in France of pancreatic cancer,...

Kandinsky painting returned to Jewish family as Netherlands shifts approach to looted art

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

(JTA) — A Dutch committee charged with assessing and acting on claims about artwork stolen from Jews before and during the Holocaust has determined that a painting by Wassily Kandinsky should be returned to the family of the Jewish woman who likely owned it prior to the Holocaust.

The family of Johanna Margarethe Stern-Lippmann, who was murdered in 1944 at Auschwitz, should regain possession of “Blick auf...

Major exhibit on artist and illustrator Arthur Szyk unveiled at WW2 Museum

By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN

A major exhibit of one of the most well-known Jewish political artists of the 20th century, Arthur Szyk (pronounced “shick”), opened last night, Thursday, September 1,  at the National World War II Museum, the date that coincides with the start of World War II 83 years ago.

Titled “In Real Times. Arthur Szyk: Art & Human Rights,” the exhibit was opened for the...

Pop artist Peter Max’s court battles are a clash between children of Holocaust survivors

By JACOB HENRY

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — The latest chapter of the surreal saga over who is making decisions for the aged pop artist Peter Max is pitting two children of Holocaust survivors against each other.

One is Libra Max, Peter Max’s daughter. The other is Barbara Lissner, an attorney who represents Holocaust survivors, including in their efforts to secure restitution. She became Peter Max’s guardian in...

Van Gogh painting stolen from Rothschild by Nazis sells for $35.9 million, breaking record

By SHIRA HANAU

(JTA) — A watercolor painting by Vincent Van Gogh that was stolen by the Nazis from its Jewish owner during the Holocaust was sold at auction for $35,855,000 Thursday, breaking the record for the largest sum ever paid for a Van Gogh painting on paper at auction.

The painting had been purchased by Max Meirowsky, a German Jewish art collector, in 1913. When Meirowsky left Germany for...

Succot, the pandemic and a lynching come together in a multiracial Jewish dancer’s new art installation

By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

(JTA) — For his latest installation, dancer and choreographer Adam McKinney drew inspiration from what may seem like disparate sources: the Jewish holiday of Succot, the coronavirus pandemic and the 1921 lynching of a Black man in Texas.

“Shelter in Place” consists of a “deconstructed sukkah,” tree branches hanging from the ceiling and elements making up the schach, a see-through material put on top of the sukkah,...

Sculptor Beverly Pepper, famed for monumental iron and steel works, dies at 97

(JTA) – Beverly Pepper, a sculptor famed for her monumental iron and steel works, has died. Pepper died Wednesday at her home in Italy. She was 97.

Pepper was born Beverly Stoll in Brooklyn in 1922. She moved to Europe in the late 1940s and in the early 1950s settled in Rome with her husband, journalist and author Curtis Bill Pepper. The couple moved to central Italy’s Umbria region in...

Chanukah photography exhibit offers a window into Hasidic Jewish life

By CURT SCHLEIER

When the Yiddish New York Festival kicked off on the first night of Chanukah, the coincidence of the weeklong celebration of Yiddish culture, food, music and dance with the Festival of Lights was unmissable.

Aside from the traditional Chanukah staples of latkes and jelly doughnuts that will be on hand, one highlight of the festival at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan will be the remarkable photography...

Leonard Cohen: A dark, brooding and loving genius

By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN

Two years ago the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (MAC) organized an exhibit on Canada’s favorite son writer, composer, singer and cultural icon, Leonard Cohen. Titled “A Crack in Everything,” the immersive and interactive exhibit included a collection of commissioned works from artists who cite Cohen as a major influence on their own artistic endeavors.

Two months ago in mid-April, the Jewish Museum...